Will brought his own school work, which was a little different than Mike’s. It’s an art project, to no one’s surprise, and it had to be perfect according to Will. Where he’s at with it is painting the smallest of details to his claymations of people, having to make sure his hands don’t wobble too much where he smudges the paint.

After forty-five minutes had gone by, he started to feel Mike’s eyes on him, watching him focused on painting. He didn’t mind it at all, until Mike started to nag him to help him with one of his own school work that required art, but not to the degree of Will’s. Still, it is something Mike has been dreading to start, not having a single artistic bone in him.

Mike kept the sad puppy dog face, oblivious to what Will was telling him to not do. “Just help me with it whenever you can, that’s all I’m asking.”

Will sighed, dabbing his paintbrush in a water cup to add a new color. “When you mean ‘help’, you actually mean for me to just do it for you, right?”

Mike slightly threw his hands up in mock offense, although Will was right on with his assumptions. “Of course not!” That earned Mike another side glance from him. “I just don’t know how to really start it, so maybe you can help me out with that. After, I swear I’ll take on the rest.”

Will groaned, but not from Mike’s suggestion. He swiped a little too harshly when painting eyes on one of the claymation people, making it look messy. He hated a messy look on his art.

Deciding to take a deep breath and fix it later, he starts putting his attention onto the small trees he made out of cardboard, grabbing a nearby glue stick. “Are you even done with your other homework you have?”

Mike, who is still laying on his stomach with his elbows propped up, only shrugged to his question. “I mean, sorta yea. I’m kinda waiting for you to finish up so we can start my art homework, that’s the most important one.”

Will shook his head. “I don’t remember agreeing to help you with it yet.”

Mike whined. “Oh c'mon, please?” He goes back to making the face everyone cannot say no to, scrunching his eyebrows a little high with his eyes slightly crinkled up. Will can sense it, and tries everything in his power to not look over his shoulder at Mike, no matter what he says.

“I still have my own I have to work on, which I’m literally doing right now. It’s going to take awhile, I’m sorry.”

Will hears Mike sigh dramatically, which has him bite the inside of his cheek to not comment on. He feels himself on the edge of it, on the edge of almost falling for it. The slight whine caught in Mike’s tone, the scrunch of his brows and crinkle of his eyes, having a sad longing expression written all over his face. It’s the infamous lost puppy dog face, and Will has witnessed so many lose to it.

He can’t. He won’t. This art project he’s doing is worth half of his grade, he can’t abandon it to start another that’s not even his. Mike is going to learn the lesson of patience today, and that you can’t always get everything you want, no matter how hard you try. Everything is fine, just focus on folding the green paper in a way that almost looks like leaves—

“I can’t believe it.” Mike’s voice pulls Will out of his train of focus, having him pause his movements yet again. He hasn’t looked over yet, though.

“Can’t believe what?”

“That you don’t love me.”

Will perks his head up, staring at the wall in front of him for a few seconds. His left hand does a little twitch, and he finally fully faces over to look at Mike, turning his entire chair around.

There he was. On the bed, wearing that stupid lost puppy face that he hasn’t dropped once, the one where Will has the sudden urge to wipe it right off of him.

“Okay, that’s it.”

Will got up from his chair, a little too fast for Mike as he flinched and started to sit up on the bed to put a bit of distance between.

Will moved in silence, avoiding Mike’s flailing hands to grab his wrists as he settled for a seat on his waist, not wasting any time on showing his true motives by shoving his hands directly to Mike’s underarms.

Thank god nobody was home and it was just the two of them, because Mike screamed bloody-murder.

“WAHAHAIT!” Mike spluttered out through his frantic laughter, cheeks becoming tinted pink in an instant over embarrassment from how easy it always is to take him down with just a couple of wiggling fingers to his skin. He absolutely hated walking around with “the most ticklish” title in the friend group, but thankfully for him most of the time he didn't get attacked unless it was well deserved.

Like right now, in only Will’s eyes.

“You just couldn’t leave me be, huh?” Will calmly talked over Mike’s giggly protests and pleas that fell on deaf ears, trying to press half of his face in a nearby pillow to muffle his laughs that are soon to become hiccupy. Will squeals when tickled to pieces, which Mike adores. For Mike, he hiccups, which Will adores. The littlest details in both their laughs that gets them to pray for opportunities to fall in their laps as an excuse to get one another.

“You just had to keep bugging me while I was doing my work.” His left hand started to travel lower, getting him on the start of his upper ribs. Mike bucked his hips, but Will barely moved from where he was sitting on his waist. Mike is starting to think that maybe joining Lucas whenever he heads to the gym isn’t a bad idea after all, because he would’ve already gotten out of this. He’s sure of it.

Will kept talking, ignoring how bad the rapid squeezing to Mike’s side is getting him to cackle nonstop. “You just had to go and try and trick me using your sad puppy dog eyes, huh? Did you really think that was going to work on me? I need you to think again.”

Will decided to have a heart and stop for a moment, letting him catch his breath. Mike furrows his brows in a mock of confusion, yet his big smile and sheepish giggles tell Will otherwise that he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

“Ihihi dohon’t— huh?? Puppy dog eyes…? Whahat do yohou mean—“ but Mike couldn’t finish his sentence as more giggles cut through, because Will started to lightly prod in various places around his stomach and sides as he narrowed his eyes down at him. “Oh yeah, act dumb, because that’s gonna make me stop tickling you.”

Will has been itching to go in for the kill, for the one spot that nearly has Mike see heaven itself from how terribly it tickles. He couldn’t resist anymore, and decided Mike didn’t deserve any build-up for it anyway, not today at least. After a couple of more pokes and prods up and down his sides, he all of a sudden latches his hands firmly on each side of Mike’s hips, poised for a brutal attack.

Mike was barely given any time to register what’s to come, gasping before letting a giggly shrill overtake him from fingers now rapidly pinching his hipbones, so loud it nearly had Will stop to cover his poor ears. Yet he just laughs alongside Mike over his ridiculous squirming that gets him nowhere and the hiccups in between his laughs that come from deep within the chest. God, he could do this all day if homework wasn’t silently calling his name this entire time, having to put an end to this soon.

“IHIHIM— IHIHIM—“ Mike squeezed his eyes shut to try and stop the tears from laughing so hard to roll down his rosy cheeks, but it’s quite inevitable. Will can’t help but start to softly smile down at the sight underneath him, resorting to scribbling at the hips so Mike can have a chance to speak.

“You’re…? You’re what?” Will teases gently, slowing the tickles altogether once he can tell that Mike’s giggly hiccups in between are starting to get painful. The sight of Mike being so relieved to finally bless his lungs with air, cheeks burning, body all limp has pulled Will’s heart strings a little, starting to rub small soothing circles on all the spots he targeted in the last three minutes as a quiet ‘sorry’ if he ever went too far.

He never goes too far whenever he tickles Mike, though. If anything, small disappointment waved over him the second Will stopped, wishing tickles didn’t tire him out so easily so it could go for longer without Will ever overthinking he’s done too much.

But of course, the thought of Will ever finding out how much this enjoys Mike would surely kill him on the spot from humiliation. He’ll continue to stay silent.

For now.

“I’m sohohorehehey…” He finished his sentence after a couple of more moments pulling himself together, slowly opening his eyes to look up at a smiling Will who holds so much love for him behind his gaze.

His hands go right back to his hipbones, resting there to give the illusion he’ll start back up again, having Mike flinch. “I don’t think you are.”

Will lets a few seconds go by of watching Mike let out another batch of giggly pleas, shaking his head, hands wrapping tight around Will’s wrists but not doing much to push back. He’s not even tickling him, yet Mike is doing so much laughing that it’s satisfying enough for Will to call it quits.

“But,” he swiftly gets off of Mike’s waist, heading back to his chair while biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning over Mike’s dumbfounded expression over him going back to his art project like nothing happened. He picks up where he left off on paper macheing the trees, grabbing the glue stick nearby that’s already got the cap off. “This project won’t finish itself, so I’ll let it go. For now.”

From behind, Will hears quiet shuffling, assuming Mike is sitting up to go fetch his own half unfinished homework, thinking how right Will is. It won’t finish itself.

However, he sees Mike pull his own wheeling chair next to Will from his peripheral vision, making him stop to look up with a raise of a brow.

“Then, when you’re done, you’ll hundred percent help with mine, yes?”

Cue the look.

Steve Harrington who hates his tickle laugh with a burning passion, but too bad for him because his friends absolutely adore it so he's most of the time on edge around them. His tickle laugh is 100% waayyyyy different than a laugh he does whenever someone tells a good joke, so high-pitched it easily embarrasses him and sends a flush to his cheeks. Steve cackles more than anything though when being tickled, and it never fails to have whoever is tickling him to laugh alongside with him because of it.

Steve Harrington who snorts when the tickling goes on for more than three minutes, or of course when you start to target his hips. If you go there, it's best to make sure you're already holding on or he WILL buck you off and not say sorry for it, talking about how you deserved it.

Steve Harrington who is pretty easy to overpower when getting into a tickle fight, something he definitely does not ever want to talk about. When he was dating Nancy, bless him, was only trying to be a cute boyfriend and get her to giggle here and there to tease, but Nancy quickly turned those tables around each time and soon enough Steve was doing all the giggling and pleading. Tickle fights with Robin, however? He doesn't even try. She always has the upper hand, going straight for the kill on his worst spots and tickling him in such a way it has him emit funny weird sounds through his laughter he's never ever heard before. It's not like he starts them anyways, it's most of the time her. But how can you blame Robin, when her best friend's reactions are just so priceless???

Steve Harrington who never fails to give quick pokes or a skitter to his friends' sides if they ever catch an attitude with him, and those who fall victim to this most of the time is either Dustin or Robin, I mean duh. With Dustin it usually escalates to more than just that, because man does that boy don't know when to stop pushing his best friend's buttons. I see Steve only tickling his friends if they ever were to be a pest, not just because he felt like it. For how ticklish he is, it'd be a big mistake on Steve's part to start a tickle fight that he very much cannot finish.

Steve Harrington who when punishing you with tickles, will make you apologize but all the while still tickling you to pieces. Nope, he won't stop. No, he doesn't care if you can't get the words out because you keep laughing so much. Just try harder. So kind of him, right? He also teases by stating the obvious a lot, knowing damn well you can't reply back. "Jesus, this must badly tickle, huh?" "What do you mean you can't? Oh, I'm sorry, is it because you want me to stop? Hmmm, I don't know." "Was that a snort? You snorted because I tickled you riiight here, correct? Or was it this spot?"

Although, also a blessing, because if you already didn’t think Mike and Will were practically born attached to the hip, them ending up living together would’ve started to change your mind in a heartbeat.

Will was no longer a few minute bike ride down the street for Mike, instead a few steps down to the basement in the comfort of his own home. Whenever boredom struck either boy when there wasn’t any scheduled crawl happening later that night, they found each other in less than a second to hangout. They soak in each other’s company more than ever, and being childhood friends left them with the ability to do even the smallest things together and still be able to manage to create some great memories they’ll look back on.

Like right now, for example.

The basement only had Mike and Will in there, Jonathan leaving half an hour ago with Nancy. It was perfect, as today the fall wind seems to have an extra chill in the air that would make it too hard to enjoy anything outdoors.

A simple glance over at the corner where Will’s art supplies could be found was enough for an idea to pop into Mike’s head, grabbing some color pencils that looked like they needed to be sharpened and pointed at a nearby chair for Will to take a seat in.

Who has been sitting for a good three minutes by now, growing anxious each time Mike looks up at him then scribbles away at the paper he’s covering with half of his arm with newfound inspiration.

He shifts a little, earning him a small creak from the chair. “Mike, you really don’t have to—“

“Sssh.” Is all he’s been met with every time he speaks up. Mike has never stopped adoring Will’s love for art, and how he turned it into his own love language to gift the people he cares about paintings and sketches of their favorite character from a tv show or a beautiful portrait of themselves in a breathtaking scenery behind them. He puts his feelings and emotions into these drawings, and hopes the people he gives them to see it, as having his love for others be put into words isn’t something that comes so easily to Will.

Mike has been Will’s favorite person to give these types of gifts to, and no doubt does it give such a warm fuzzy feeling in Mike’s chest he can’t quite explain what it is, but takes the time to appreciate every artwork and hang some of them up in his room while the others are neatly stacked in a box sitting on his shelf to look through from time to time.

Although, he does sit to wonder if Will ever wished to be on the receiving end for a sweet change, putting his talents to a rest as someone gives him a painting they worked hard on.

Mike wanted to be the first to do so, but too bad for Will it won’t look like Picasso himself made it for him. Maybe almost like a five year old did, instead.

“Okay, finished!” Mike suddenly spoke up, getting Will to jump a little in his seat. He moves his arm that’s been blocking Will’s view in case he ever tries to steal a peek, holding the paper up so the sun leaking through the curtains can shine directly on it to show every single detail.

For a split second, all that could be heard was the tree branches lightly scratching against the window from the breeze.

“Is that… really supposed to be me?” Is what finally broke the quietness, Will pointing at the paper with a slight disbelief expression written on his face.

Mike somehow not being able to pick up his tone was beyond Will, as he started to break down every detail of the drawing like his question was him genuinely asking.

“Well, of course. See, look..” He pointed first at the eyes, which held a striking resemblance of a thousand yard stare that gives Will the shivers the longer he stares at it. “These are your green eyes, and I even added the little brown you have in them.”

Will feels the beginning of his cheeks heating up, a small detail like that he himself even sometimes forgets, because there’s no reason for him to stare that closely into his own eyes to see every inkling of color it holds. Although, I guess Mike has no problem doing that.

“Oh, and these dots? Those are your freckles. One right here, here, also here…” Mike points in different places on Will’s face of the portrait he drew, and it did not help whatsoever to Will’s current flustered state. Freckles he was never aware of he had in certain areas. How much was Mike observing? Or is this just knowledge he’s always had about him?

And he just kept going.

A point to the hair. “I see some curls coming in, so I added that in for your hair. That’s what the swooshes are, if you couldn’t tell.”

A point to the smile. “Oh, and here I was trying to capture your smile as best as I could. That line right there is supposed to be a dimple. I don’t think you’re aware you have one, but it comes out whenever you’re talking about your special interests, or recalling a really funny embarrassing moment of Jonathan, or when you’re talking to m—“

“Okay, okay, Mike! I got it, it really is a portrait of me…” Will was quick to cut off Mike’s sentence before it got too much, needing a break from his poor cheeks burning up with every detail Mike goes into explanation of, oblivious to how observant of his best friend’s facial features brings Will to an understandably flustered mess.

Mike sets the paper down on the table beside him, giving it a glance before bringing his eyes back on Will who isn’t meeting his gaze currently. “You don’t believe me.”

“What..?” Now Will is looking at him.

“You think this looks nothing like you.” His tone is playful, but he leans a little back in his chair with arms crossed to put up a front that he’s a little hurt. “I put a lot of time and effort into this—“

“It only took you three minutes—“

“—and I made sure to get it as accurate as possible. Is my art skills really that bad? It’s okay, you can say it. I forgot who I’m with.”

Mike’s dramatics earns him a eyeroll from the other, who ignores the question that has an obvious answer as he leans a little closer to the table to get a better look at the drawing.

“I’m trying to look at it through your eyes, and I can kinda see it. But…” he taps at the fainted line on the left side of the portrait’s cheek. “I do not have a dimple. You completely made that up, for whatever reason.”

Mike’s eyebrows knit together, dumbfounded to say the least. “Are you kidding?” He grabs the paper, holding it up next to Will’s face, eyeing between the two. “Smile for me.”

Will ignores how such a simple request from Mike made his cheeks become a little tinted pink, lips tugging into a weak smile that made Mike scoff and put the drawing back down on the table.

“Dude, you’re not even trying—“

“Well, it’s awkward when someone just tells you to smile!”

It took one singular glance up and down at Will for the gears in Mike’s brain to start churning out an idea he hasn’t acted upon in such a long time, almost forgetting how often they used to do this to each other when both were younger and would get on each other’s nerves, or just wanted to be pestering little shits.

“No no, it’s okay.” Mike said ever so calmly, not wanting to foil his intentions that will soon become evident in just a few seconds. “I think I know what will make it show.”

All Will did was blink, and suddenly his back was against the floor with the help of blankets and pillows being scattered around to lessen the pain the tackle gave him. Mike straddled his hips before Will could do so much as think to get up, his tone catching a nervous shake to it.

“Mike, what are you doIHIHING— WAIT!” Laughter was soon to cut him off once he felt nimble fingers worming its way up his sides, getting higher and higher to his underarms which if Mike’s hazy memory is serving him right, it’s a spot that turns Will’s frantic giggles into tiny hiccups he can’t hold back on.

Will tried to be one step ahead of him, slamming his arms down to block the spot but Mike was surprisingly quick, jamming his fingers there as soon as it happened which led to them being trapped for now. Mike wasn’t complaining at all about his predicament, however.

Took only twenty seconds until Will’s dimple Mike was certain he had started to faintly show on his left cheek, becoming more prominent with each hard drill of his thumbs into the hollows of his armpits to fish out another hiccup that brings Mike to his own fits of giggles.

“See? There it is. Making me think I’m just going crazy.” Mike said with a shake of his head, starting to slow down at the first sight of tears already starting to prickle in his best friend’s eyes. The semi-given break had Will flutter his eyes open, hands grabbing ahold of Mike’s wrists but not putting much up of a fight to twist them away.

“Ohohokay, ohohokay! You’re right and I was wrong, so ple—“

“Do you think your knees are just as bad as they were when we were younger?” Mike asked, but wasn’t expecting an answer, more so leaning in on the option of finding out himself. Once Mike got his hands behind him, he didn’t even get the chance to start latching onto his knees as Will was already attempting to find purchase on the floor with the heels of his shoes to buck him off.

“No! It’s nohot, it’s not! They aren’t!” Will did a terrible job of convincing, his constant squirming and giggles lacing behind his voice was giving him up completely that Mike couldn’t help but let out a sympathetic huff of a chuckle through his nose.

“Yet you’re still giggling, if not more when I just hover my hands over them.” And he did, shaping them to be almost like claws and did a couple of squeeze motions in the air, absolutely enjoying every second how much effect the anticipation is killing Will.

Will can’t possibly imagine how terribly flushed his face must be, legs still kicking out to avoid the hands that try to follow along. From what he can remember from his tickle fights with Mike in their younger days, when Mike does the tickling, there is no pleading that boy will take into consideration and just have it go in one ear and out the other. Will further worsened it when he started to complain to the friend group he didn’t want to be treated so fragile, to be babied constantly by everyone around him. So Mike without hesitation took it upon himself to show that he listens, but also made it apply to their tickle fights which ends in Will nearly gasping for air. By then, Will knew it was far too late to now retract back his statement.

“You’re being soho mean..” is all Will can find himself to say, and didn’t like how it only got Mike to respond with a quirked up brow and a growing smirk.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll be nicer and just cut to the chase, then.”

And boy did he, ignoring the shrieking ‘no!’ coming out of Will before being overtaken by his squeaky laughter yet again, knees receiving rapid squeezes to the bone with a tight latched grip to follow the violent kicks.

Will couldn’t muster enough energy to fight back properly, aiming weak punches to the chest as one hand even resorted to just clutching onto the fabric of Mike’s shirt, yet staying there with no push or pull to get him off. The buck of his hips didn’t seem to work either, so Will was left to believe this truly is just his fate he’s forced to succumb to until Mike’s entertainment meter was filled to the brim.

However, a spot like his knees was only ever built for a few seconds of tickling, Mike not wanting to be on trial for murder as he finally leaves them be and decides on scribbling back to his sides, an easy target that still promises priceless reactions.

Such as a snort.

It seemed like it not only caught Mike by surprise, but Will as well, caused by the fast switch up of spots he couldn’t get used to in time.

“Oh man, I think I’ll have to start making this a habit again.” Mike chuckled, putting his tickles to a halt when he took the snort as a sign that Will needs a breather. Will was more than relieved to eventually bless his lungs with air, letting the leftover giggles get all out of his chest before deadpanning up at him.

“Funny how you’re acting like you’re not just as ticklish as me. In fact, even worse if I remember correctly..”

Mike shot out grips to both of Will’s wrists the second he saw them move to test his memory, not needing the tables to be turned so swiftly on him.

“Well, you’re not.”

“Uh huh, then let go of my wrists.” Will gives them a pull, but they barely budge as Mike only tightens his hold.

“Uh, sorry, no can do.”

“Mike,” Will resorts to reasoning, it being far too long of him pinned on the floor as Mike could very much go for round two if he ever feels like it, but there won’t be any waiting around to see if that becomes true, getting a bit hungry now for his own revenge. “Seriously let me up, you had your fun—“

The door to the basement suddenly swings open out of the blue, pulling both of their attention away from each other as it lands on Jonathan who takes a few steps down.

Yet stops, seeing the state the two of them are currently.

“…What are you guys doing?” It sounded like he almost didn’t want to question, and should've made his and Nancy’s date go on a little longer.

Mike gives him a grin, one that kickstarts Will’s squirming all over again.