Will Byers was, simply put, caught deep in a trap of his own making. It had all started innocently enough. Three months after Starcourt and the move to the new house far from Hawkins, El was… not doing well. She'd managed alright enough during the first three months after Hopper died, having Mike and the rest of the Party there to help her through the grief.
Mike would typically come over, or Dustin, or Max, even Lucas visited a couple of times to show that they were all there for her. They were her friends, and that support system was something she needed direly, especially after the months went by and her powers didn't seem to be making a comeback. Slowly but surely, things started looking up.
And then the move happened, and El had gotten worse than he'd ever seen her.
Not that Will was especially close to El. Quite the opposite. Even after the gate had been closed all the way up to summer of '85, he'd never really interacted with her while Mike wasn't around. The closest thing they had in common at all was that they both knew Mike, and very little beyond that. Even when Joyce had taken El in to make sure she had someplace safe to live, El and Will didn't interact all that much.
Odd, given that they both lived under the same roof. But, in fairness, she was closer to the others than she'd ever been with him and, in his own defense, he'd never really made an effort to seek out her friendship. He was more thankful than he could ever explain that she'd saved him those two years ago (which felt like a lifetime), but they just didn't… know each other.
Being so far away from the others, Will could see that El's mood had taken a sharp, sharp dive. Not only was she still mourning Hopper, a state only newly refreshed by her discovery of that letter he'd written out, but now she was hours away from the only friends she'd ever known. They could still talk, yes, but distance meant those talks would become much rarer than they had been.
Long-distance calls were expensive, it wasn't going to be a practice they'd be able to keep up.
So, the responsibility of being the one there to support El naturally fell to Will. Joyce did what she could, but she was working ever harder to keep the family afloat during the period after the move, and Jonathan was the same, working shifts just like his mother.
Will wasn't going to lie, at first, he was not thrilled. Even being as kind and caring a person as he was, he had no idea what he was doing.
…but then he started looking, really looking, and El just looked so… sad, drained…
Depressed, even.
So, Will resolved, since Mike couldn't be there, he'd have to be the next best thing. And he'd try his hardest, no matter what. Even if he couldn't cure the pain, which he knew wasn't going to happen, he was going to try his best to make sure it wasn't as bad.
Operation Cheer El Up was a go.
It's slow going at first, and part of Will thinks that El may not even want to be happy at this point, but he tries, and tries, and eventually, just a few days after the move, he makes headway.
Will started off by getting El to watch 'Airplane!' the movie that was so over-the-top that he physically couldn't hold back laughter every time he watched it.
El is a bit confused at first. The things Hopper really preferred watching with her were soap operas and shows like 'The A-Team' and 'Magnum P.I.'
Will's half worried El won't like it, and his first tries to get El at least in a somewhat joyous state would be doomed to crash and burn, like the airplane in the movie coincidentally.
But then, the super-serious Leslie Neilson, who El mainly recognized from the serious movies she watched with Hopper, popped on screen, and for a moment, El looked like she was about to burst into tears.
And then the man starts removing the eggs from one of the passenger's mouth, El growing befuddled as each one was replaced, and then he cracks one on the side of a cup and a bird goes flying around, chirping as loud as it can.
El can't help it, and she dies laughing.
Will sat there, looking on with his own slight smile, happy that he's beginning to make headway. Also, he notes, El had one of the most beautiful, vibrant smiles he had ever seen, and a laugh to match.
He only regrets he hadn't seen it before now.
Over the course of the next few months, El starts to open up more and more thanks to Will's efforts. In that span of time, he learns more about her than even he expected. Despite having been quiet and shy for a good chunk of the time he'd known her, once she actually got comfortable being around the Byers, she proved to be a very boisterous, very ebullient person.
She loved to sing, she loved to play around, she loved… everything, it seemed. There was very little on the planet it seemed that made El unhappy, save for lying, the obvious talk of the Lab, the Upside Down, and everything that had happened that summer.
Even talking about Mike, who was hours away, made El's face shine like a star, and her eyes sparkle like jewels.
Will likes to think that this whole thing is working, that maybe for once something in this world is going the way he expected, and not in the bad way of expecting a fight or whatnot.
But, of course, it wasn't that easy.
It was never that easy.
Will, he thinks in his own mind, is starting to get close to El. DANGEROUSLY close. Mike was half-right when he threw the accusation that Will didn't even like girls in his face.
He hadn't liked girls in that way, and certainly not just girls. Will thinks it probably has something to do with the hell he went through stunting his development. Not that it was his own fault, not like he could control the machinations of an Elder God from another dimension, but whatever the cause, he just never felt those urges.
He's feeling them now. At the most inopportune moment, when his first concern is trying to make El happy, not trying to get into her pants. Especially not when he knows she loves Mike.
Cursed late puberty hormones only kicking in once he's somewhere he doesn't want them to kick in, instead of the other way around.
He catches sight of El, fresh from the shower, wrapped in a towel, and he scrambles to lock himself in his room.
He is in deep shit.
Will, desperately trying to keep his raging hormones under control, locks up and backs off from El. She looks confused and slightly hurt every time he inches away from her, ducks out of the way as she passes by, and keeps from making eye contact.
He wonders what's going on inside her head. He wishes he could tell her, but he could never do that. Never put her in that position, and never do that to Mike.
Will just needs to hold out until everything calms down.
Then, El corners him. Because of course she does. She really doesn't have a sense of boundaries and doesn't quite understand that if someone is avoiding you, perhaps the last thing you should do is twist their arm into talking.
Then again, it's not like she has a choice. Not with Will clamming up every time she tries to talk to him like a normal person.
"You're avoiding me." El accuses with that petulant look on her face that Will finds absolutely adorable-
No, dammit! This is an alert, condition Red, he has to get the hell out of there, pronto, and as safely as he can.
"What?" Will swallowed. "No-" He stammered, desperately feeling the wall behind him for the doorway to his bedroom. "No I'm not."
El's eyes narrowed. "You're lying." She hissed, poking him in the sternum, and Will jumps as his back hits the wall.
He's praying to whatever god that's out there that she doesn't get any closer. Because there's that part of him that wants her to get closer, and the current part in control wants nothing to do with that other part.
Will swallowed, trying to steady his breathing. "El, I… Please, just… back off."
El frowns. "You are avoiding me…" She confirmed it for herself. "How come?"
Well, Will ruefully thought to himself, it's because he's incapable of maintaining purely platonic feelings for someone he knows is involved with someone else.
"Um, w-well, uh, um…" Will stammered unsurely, as El leaned in to get a closer look at Will's eyes.
El tilted her head. "Why?"
Will froze like an ice cube, looking down at her. Those big doe eyes, her soft lips, her skin pale from spending all her time inside but just starting to tan…
He can't take it anymore.
Will, being driven purely by his urges at that point, gently grasps both sides of El's head and pulls himself in, pressing his lips to hers.
It's driven purely by hormones and need, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see El's eyes go the size of dinner plates.
Will's practically sucking all the air out of her when he finally breaks, and staggers back.
El is standing there, frozen in shock, mouth still parted slightly.
What the hell did he just do?
Saying nothing, Will moved to scramble away, when El suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Will froze in shock.
El turns him around, and with her cheeks tinted pink, gently reached up to Will, pulling him back in.
This time, Will is the one to be surprised, eyes going wide as he realized what was happening, before they shut, and he started returning El's kisses.
He has no idea what's happening, if it was actually occurring or if it was a dream, but either way, Will didn't care.
His hands wrapped around El, coming to rest on her back as he pulled her in, neither of them breaking the embrace.
One of his hands, free of his conscious input, drifted down and down, coming to rest on the one of the cheeks of El's behind.
El took a sharp breath, and Will broke again.
Will shook. "I'm sorry, I-"
"I didn't say stop." El seriously retorted, pulling him back in yet again.
Will was thankful that neither Joyce nor Jonathan was there, because if they were, they would've put a stop to it. And he didn't want it to stop. Certainly not now.
And judging by the way El was sucking his face off in return, she didn't want to stop either.
Running on full autopilot, all his attention devoted to the girl in his arms, Will found the knob of his bedroom door and pushed it open, stumbling back onto his bed.
El pulled back from Will, looking down at the bulge growing in his pants. She looked to his eyes, silently questioning.
"El…" Will shifted trying not to focus on the fact that she was right on top of him. She was right there and every one of his senses was going wild. He could feel the heat radiating off her skin, his own goosebumps prickling in response, the rush of blood down to his prick, and the warmth of her breath so, so close to right where he had fantasized her being.
El smiled, so full of warmth, kindness, and even a little bit of lust as she worked to undo the button keeping Will's most private part hidden from the outside world.
Pulling his underwear down, El watched, mesmerized with hungry eyes as Will's member stood at attention.
Will's toes curled as he stiffened. "Maybe we should-"
"Shh…" El hushed him, her breath tickling his earlobe and sending goosebumps down his neck. She leaned down, licking her lips, before she took Will's rock-hard length into her mouth, not even daring to break eye contact.
Will threw his head back, gasping like a fish out of water as he arched up, pushing slightly into El. He had no clue where she learned how to do that, but he didn't care. It felt amazing, better than any pleasure he'd ever felt before.
He looked down at her, blinking, as he noticed her undoing the buttons on her blouse, and his eyes bugged out.
El released his now-slick member with a pop and giggled as she leaned up. Oh, because apparently his reactions were funny.
"El…" Will tried to find his voice again. "Maybe we should stop…" Because if they don't, he's going to have to explain to Mike why he fucked his girlfriend, and maybe, just maybe it'd be easier to talk about if Will and El don't go all-the-way.
"Quiet." El commanded, pulling Will's pants and boxers off in one fluid motion. All that's left to protect whatever dignity Will's trying to pretend at having is just a white t-shirt, and soon enough, El gets that off of him as well.
El starts removing the rest of her clothing, starting with her jeans, before shrugging off her hanging blouse. She seems to know exactly what buttons to hit to drive Will mad, and it's working.
El unclasped her bra, allowing her small breasts to be exposed to the open air, nipples going hard, before she threw the bra to the side, and slipped off her panties, giving Will a perfect view of El's slick sex.
She placed a gentle hand on Will's chest, and positioned herself above his dick, the boy aching for release at this point. She seemed to have grown a conscience at this point, and looked to Will, questioning him nonverbally if he wanted to go further.
At that point… there was only one thing his body would allow him to do.
Finding the strength within him to move, he grasped El's hips, and spun around, so she was the one laying flat on the bed, and he was the one above her.
El's back hit the sheets and she yelped, breathing heavily as she looked up at Will.
He couldn't take it anymore. The sweat beads appearing on her skin just from the sheer proximity, the rising and falling of her bare chest from the exhilaration, and her face stuck in that breathless expression…
El's only warning being Will's movement, she braced herself, clenching her hands as Will slid into her. Her knuckles went white against the side of the mattress, as Will began to pump.
Soon enough, the creaking of the bed and the breathless moans of the two filled the air as their bodies joined as one.
"Mmm…" El ground her core into Will, trying to get him in deeper. "More."
That, especially now, was a request Will was happy to oblige. The boy went all in, holding onto El's shoulders as he thrust harder.
"Yes…" El approved with a breathless smile. "Like that."
Will, spurred on by her encouragement, pumped harder, trying to hit that spot he'd heard all girls had. El arched and writhed, moaning loudly like she was crying out to the heavens, as Will sped up.
She wasn't far, he could tell, and if the pressure building within him was any indication, Will wouldn't last much longer either.
"El…" Will moaned. "You're so beautiful."
El, despite the electric sensations tearing through her, returned it with a smile.
Not long now.
"I just want to tell you both: Good luck." The voice from the TV in the living room echoed through the still-open door of the bedroom. "We're all counting on you."
That almost pulled Will right out of it, but El just looked up at him, into those green-brown eyes, and laughed, sweeter to the ears than any piece of music he could think of.
"You heard him." El giggled, pulling Will in tighter. "Do it."
Will nodded, and sped up, pressing his lips to hers again as he felt the pressure build up to cataclysmic levels. Moments later, his whole body locked up, and it was like he could feel El's own climax as well.
El moaned into Will's mouth, grasping onto his back so tightly she almost drew blood, as she felt her core fill with Will's seed.
They broke, and Will looked down to El, breathing like he just got done spending it all underwater.
He rolled off of her, falling onto his back next to her.
El closed her eyes, and pressed her body into Will's, smiling slightly as he stared up at the ceiling.
"So, done avoiding me?"