will the wise and gabe the... great?

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

The oncoming storm had finally decided to grace Hawkins the following morning, so it was that dark gray clouds sat in fat clusters in the gloomy sky, and, at Mike's house, Ted Wheeler attempted to mow the lawn with a raincoat on, clutching the hood to his head as he battled his way through the fierce winds. It wasn't raining yet, but judging by the rumbling thunder in the distance, it wouldn't be long.

Inside, Gabriel Burton was asleep on the couch, drool dripping out of his opened mouth as he dreamed. He wasn't the only one asleep in Mike's basement—Lucas and Mike were also snoozing, still in their clothes, having had an impromptu sleepover. The three of them were locked into pleasant dreams—Mike's, perhaps, were about getting El back, while Lucas was more than likely reminiscing about the date at the arcade he'd had with Alina. Gabe's dreams never made that much sense—this morning he was on the top of the hill they'd hiked up to set up Dustin's Cerebro, running from the zombies from Day of the Dead—but a lot of these dreams, an alarming amount, really, had the presence of the boy with the floppy brown hair and rosy cheeks, who'd been through so much.

There was one boy who wasn't sleeping, though. He'd woken up an hour earlier and immediately gotten to work, his hands curled into determined fists. Today would be a day where his friends wouldn't be talking about their girlfriends. Today would be a day where they did what he'd always, since the Snow Ball, wanted the party to do, and that was to play a game of D&D.

It wasn't that he didn't like playing with Gabe and Alina, but there was a certain nostalgia that came with playing with Mike and Lucas (and ideally Dustin, but he wasn't here). After all, they'd been doing a ten-hour long campaign the day the Demogorgon stole him. They'd gone to conventions and dressed up like Paladins for Halloween and planned where they would go next at recess. He hadn't done that with the others.

Of course, Gabe was still here—Will had watched him for a couple minutes, not enough to be creepy about it, but to just trace the line of Gabe's jaw with his eyes and reminisce about the day they'd held hands—and Will was excited to bring the two worlds together. So, fully costumed up, his staff in hand, Will moved to the radio, and he clicked play.

Loud, medieval music immediately began to pipe out, and it was enough to rouse all three of the boys out of their slumbers. Groaning, blinking against the harsh light and noticing the overall messy state of the basement—with candy wrappers, bowls that had housed chips, and empty soda cans—Mike, Lucas and Gabe all slowly left their dream worlds behind, and turned towards the source of the sound.

"What are you doing?" Lucas was the first to speak, the hat he'd fallen asleep with lopsided on his head as he struggled to keep the last dregs of his dreams from fading away.

"Yeah, Will, can you turn down the music?" Mike asked, hands over his ears. But Will did not falter.

"Please address me by my full name," he said, and that was when Gabe caught sight of him—really caught sight of him. Will was dressed in purple wizard's robes, accompanied by a matching hat, and was clutching a staff in one hand. His chin was up, and he seemed ready—ready, Gabe realized, to plunge into the mythological adventures D&D offered.

"What?" Mike spluttered. Will slammed his staff down.

"My full name!"

Perhaps Gabe was still half-asleep, or maybe he couldn't concentrate properly with the full-volume medieval music piping through the room, either way, he said, "William Byers?"

"His other full name," corrected Lucas out of the corner of his mouth. Mike let out a sigh, now rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, my God. Okay, Will the Wise, can you please turn down the music?"

"That is not music," Will the Wise said, looking around dramatically to add effect. "That... is the sound of destiny! I have seen into the future, and I've seen that today is a new day, a day... free of girls!"

"What is happening right now?" Lucas asked.

"Will, come on," Mike groaned. Gabe, on the other hand, was standing up, stretching his limbs and listening to the sounds of distant thunder, which could just be heard under the still-piping music. Or, as Will the Wise called it, the sound of destiny. D&D. What Will had been wanting to play all day yesterday, while Mike ran amok looking for a present for his now ex-girlfriend. Gabe was okay with that. The only problem was that he didn't have a name. Nothing like Will the Wise. He'd always just gone by Gabriel in past campaigns, because at least that sounded slightly medieval. But now, he felt like the standards were higher.

Will the Wise, savior of kingdoms, moved to the board, which had been painstakingly arranged. "A tribe of villagers are under threat from an evil force from the swamps of Kuzatan."

"Will, it's so early." Mike, apparently, was still half-asleep, but Gabe was getting kind of excited now. He usually played the Wizard, because it was the class he thought most represented him, and he looked around for something he could use as a costume.

Will the Wise stood up. "Is it? Is it early, Michael? Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, the children so frightened, they cannot sleep. Are you truly going to let them perish? Or are you going to come to their rescue and become the heroes you were always meant to be?"

"The second one!" Gabe proclaimed, punching the air. "Will the Wise and Gabe the... the Great need you!"

Will looked immeasurably happy that someone, at least, had sprung into action. Meanwhile, Lucas and Mike were still looking half asleep. Lucas raised his hand. "Uh... can I at least take a shower first?"

Gabe and Will exchanged a troubled look. This wasn't going to be as easy as Will had thought.

"Go ahead," sighed Will, and Lucas puttered away to the bathroom. That left just Mike, Gabe, and Will, staring awkwardly at each other. The music was still playing. And Will was desperately hoping that Mike would finally agree.

"Are you in?" he asked, his voice quavering a little. "Will you help save the villagers?"

Mike pursed his lips, looking to Will, and then to Gabe. And then he shrugged. "Okay, sure. I'm in."

"Good," said Gabe, crossing his arms. "Because if you were going to say no after we spent the entire day yesterday following you around the mall, I would've been super pissed."

Even Mike chuckled at that.

Max had insisted that they at least sleep before heading on some weird journey to her house. After El and Alina had relayed the story of everything they'd seen, with the car, and Billy, and the girl's screams, Alina had told Max that they needed to go to her house, needed to see if he was there—and if he wasn't, to look for clues about what might've happened. But Max hadn't been there. She hadn't seen what the two girls had seen. She thought they might've been overreacting.

So, Alina was forced to try and fall asleep. She tossed and turned the entire night, unable to fall into an easy slumber, thinking about the way Billy had looked at them. Just thinking about Billy in general, really, and about how much she hated him. How much he symbolized everything that was wrong about Hawkins. She couldn't stop thinking about him pounding Steve to a pulp, about how it was practically a miracle he hadn't gotten brain damage, about his slurred words as he woke up in the car. The way Steve, strong, powerful Steve, had been broken, because of Billy.

Max may have thought that because he wasn't bothering them, they had nothing to worry about, but she hadn't thought about the damage he could do to anyone. And every time Alina closed her eyes, she could hear the girl's screams echo in her mind. Her muffled sobs. That kind of thing couldn't be explained away.

She was exhausted, now, walking beside Max and El on their way to the former's house. They'd woken up, gotten dressed, and left a hasty message for Hopper on the fridge, and now they were on their way. Even with the buildup of storm clouds in the sky, Alina hadn't expected it to be this cold, with wind nipping at her exposed arms and the hair on the back of her neck standing up.

Max suddenly let out a sigh. "It's gonna start pouring soon. We should be at the mall or, like, watching a movie or something."

"You don't believe us?" El asked.

"I believe you guys saw some super weird stuff, totally," began Max, "but you said Mike has sensed you in there before, right?" El nodded. "So maybe it was just like that. Maybe Billy just... sensed you, somehow."

"It wasn't... it wasn't quite like that," said Alina. "It's not like he was looking in our general direction. It was like... his eyes were boring right into me. He knew we were there, I swear he did."

Max crossed her arms, still skeptical. "Yeah, he sensed you. There's no way he could've actually seen you, Alina. I know you're scared of him, but nothing like that is possible."

"But the screams," El piped up. Alina shuddered at the mere mention of it.

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing," said Max, her head tilted up to the sky. "When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like really crazy noises."

"They scream?"

"Yeah, but like... happy screams."

"Happy screams?" El repeated. "What is happy screams?"

"It's like..." Max sighed, obviously not wanting to explain it. "I'm just gonna lend you my mom's Cosmo."

Alina choked, realizing what she was talking about. "No! Max, no, it definitely was not that. First of all, Billy was fully clothed. Second of all, the girl was crying, Max! And then—and then she started screaming, and it wasn't happy. It was terrifying." She paused. "I mean, it could've been some sort of kinky roleplay, but I don't think anyone's that good of an actor, especially not when they're... you know."

"Thanks for that mental picture, Alina. And Billy does some weird shit. He's not like Jonathan. He's different."

"Max, don't you think we would've left? If we saw something like that? El might not know anything about it, but I would!"

"Look, I don't know what you saw, but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation, Alina. Okay? That's why we've come all the way here, anyway."

They'd finally reached Max's house, which looked strangely ominous in the dark haze of the upcoming thunderstorm. Alina almost didn't want to go inside, even when Max said, "His car's not here."

"Does he have a shift?" Alina asked.

"He shouldn't, not right now," said Max thoughtfully. She bit her lip. "You two really want to do this?"

El nodded resolutely. Alina wanted to say no, to back out, to do what Max wanted and go to the mall again, or watch a movie. Standing here, in the darkness of the morning, looking at her house, made her scared, because in the void, nothing was real. They couldn't get hurt, couldn't die, couldn't do anything but watch others. But here, in real life, they could. And they could find things they definitely did not want to find.

But Alina had never been one to back out of things because of fear. Well, maybe the girl who grew up with Linda as a mother might have, but the Alina who had Brandon Fairgrieves as a father and fought back against Demogorgons and the Alina with Joyce as a mother who fought against Mind Flayers didn't. She was brave, and she was strong, and she was a superhero. And superheroes saved people, didn't they?

And there seemed to be a girl who needed saving.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: in honor of a year since stranger things 3 (which is wild!) and gabe's birthday, here's another chapter!! these next few are gonna be split between gabe and alina as alina tries to figure out what's going on with heather and gabe... plays d&d. more gill scenes are coming up, though, along with sinclairgrieves!! honestly you stans are gonna get FED in this book (there's basically two whole chapters that are just reserved for them) and y'all deserve it after all the angst hahaha. not saying that there isn't anymore, because, of course, there is.

'till next time!