a belated birthday bash

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

 Today was supposed to be a good day, and, although many such days that were supposed to be good turned out less than favourable, there wasn't much doubt that this day would stay good, because it had everything going for it. Streams of sunlight bounced off the shiny balloons, which were bunched together and held down with weights wrapped in glittering packages; pool water glistened merrily, fresh from a recent vacuum; streamers were wrapped around fenceposts and fluttered slightly in the wind; and a table groaned from the weight of a huge, red velvet cake, frosted in cream cheese frosting and with fourteen waxy candles perched on top. The cake was accompanied by bowls of chips, meatballs stuck with toothpicks, spring rolls, and mozzarella sticks. Finally, a banner flapped in the wind on the back lawn, with precise, font-like writing, packages of gifts sat strewn around the backyard, and confetti glittered in the air like snowflakes.

In the Burton household backyard, the party was preparing for the belated birthday bash of a lifetime. Clad in bathing suits and with sunscreen smeared on their faces, they giggled excitedly, splashing each other and playing beach volleyball. Maybe everything was a bit overboard, and that was certainly what the person that party was for would say, but this belated birthday bash had been set up by grandparents and seven over-eager teenagers desperate for fun, so what could you expect?

Gabe's birthday had been on the day everything had gone wrong, and everyone had agreed that this was completely unfair. When he was supposed to be riding on the Ferris wheel or playing carnival games, he, along with his friends were instead battling creatures from another dimensions, watching people die right in front of their eyes, and getting beat up. He hadn't gotten the celebration he really deserved, which was why, exactly two weeks after his actual birthday and the day he would come home from the hospital (he'd gotten a mild concussion, a broken nose, and quite a lot of bruises marring his face), the party had set up a surprise belated birthday party for him. Two weeks had been enough time for them to breathe, to come to terms with what had happened, and grow tired of the constant melancholy that had settled into the air. It had been enough time for them to crave amusement again.

Of course, not everyone was smiling. El was sitting on the edge of the pool, swirling her feet in the cool water, the occasional tear slipping down her face. She'd never learned how to swim, anyway, but she could flock around in the shallow end with Mike. She was only choosing not to because she was hurting. Aching. A piece of her heart had been removed.

Because Jim Hopper, her adopted father, was dead. It was something that should've been impossible, unthinkable, because Hopper had always been so strong and, to the party, seemed simply invincible, but it had happened. Somehow, it had happened. Somehow, he'd disappeared, leaving El an orphan yet again and causing her to move to the Byers' household, which was getting more and more crowded.

She was still processing it. For her, it didn't really feel like Hopper was dead, more like he was just waiting for her somewhere. And maybe he was, because she knew Joyce hadn't seen him die, just assumed it, because of course she did, when she'd just blown up the machine he was standing right beside. She no longer had her abilities, but she'd often plead with Alina to venture into the void and search for the Chief of Police, although the girl never yielded any results. Probably because she'd never been good at doing that on her own. Or maybe it was because he was dead.

"El?" Mike called. He had been sitting at a table with Dustin and Lucas, walkie-talkie in his pocket for when Gabe radioed that he was coming home, when he noticed his girlfriend's sorrowed state. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," said El, shrugging her shoulders. She was wearing a bathing suit of Max's, bright red like the one Heather had been wearing in the void. "Just... thinking."

Mike still looked concerned, but any protests he might have said were waved off when the walkie-talkie buzzed. They'd instructed Gabe to tell them when he was returning home so they knew when to prepare for this surprise party. He'd been in the hospital for two whole weeks recovering from the abundance of injuries Billy had heaped upon him back at Starcourt Mall, which was now a pile of ash. He hadn't given them any details, but they all knew he'd risked his life to save them. It wasn't exactly subtle.

"Uh... I know Dustin had the code name Gold Leader, but I'm honestly stumped for ideas," Gabe said now. "I've been trying to come up with one for the past week or so, but I honestly don't—oh! I know! This is kind of lame, but Gabe the Great is... coming home? Returning to base? What was it that Dustin said?"

Mike stood up. "Guys, he's coming!"

The other party members: Alina, Max, and Will, who had been hovering over the snack tables under the pretense of "arranging the gifts", trying to prevent themselves from stuffing their faces before the party even started, suddenly stopped talking and made their way over, noisemakers in hand. Much like Dustin's Welcome Home party, they were going to surprise him, although there were no abilities involved this time. And although Lucas doubted Gabe would be armed with Farrah Fawcett hairspray, he still made sure he was near the back of the group, near Alina, whose bruised ribs were healing nicely.

It took a couple of minutes for Gabe to arrive—probably because his grandpa was the slowest driver in existence—but eventually they heard the front door click open, and his grandma, Dolores, who was in on everything, suggest he go to the backyard. "I've decorated things a little bit, Gabe," she said. "You know, for your birthday. Why don't you go check it out?"

"Okay," said Gabe cautiously, and everyone sprung into position, noisemakers to their lips. The sliding door to the backyard opened, and then they were all blowing the noisemakers, causing the poor boy to nearly leap out of his skin.

He looked much better now that he wasn't constantly being beaten up. He was wearing a tank top and flip-flops and a sunshine-yellow baseball cap, and, although his face was still a little puffy, he looked almost normal. Well, for point-two seconds. Then he was screaming his head off.

"Jesus Christ!" he blurted, when he'd finished screaming. "You guys scared the shit out of me! What are you doing here? Why are you in swim—oh." His eyes had found the decorations strewn about, the cake, the balloons, the gifts and the banner. "Oh!"

"It's a belated birthday bash," explained Max, tucking her hair behind her ears. There was the ghost of the scrape on her freckled cheek. "'Cause we all know your birthday totally sucked."

Gabe stared around, blinking. "Wow. Wow. All of this is for me?"

"Do you know anyone else named Gabe who had a birthday two weeks ago?" Alina asked, gesturing to the banner. "Of course it's for you."

"Wow," said Gabe again, and everyone laughed, the party moving into full swing. It wasn't exactly what anyone had imagined, because each person bore the scarred remains of what had happened so recently, and occasionally their smiles would drop as they remembered Hopper or Heather or pictured, yet again, El's swollen leg (which she could now walk on fairly well) or the slimy monster made of corpses, but it was good enough considering the circumstances, and got even better when the time came to stuff themselves with cake and open presents. Gabe got a new walkie-talkie from Alina, because his had been acting weird lately, a brand-new, not button-down shirt from Mike, a science board game from Dustin, a bunch of candy from Lucas stuffed in a Coke bottle (here, they exchanged an amused glance, remembering their New Coke debate), a windbreaker from El (Max had helped her pick it out), and a stuffed cat from Max that was nearly the same size as Skywalker. That left only the envelope from Will, and Gabe's fingers fumbled with it, curious about what the boy had gotten him.

Inside the envelope were three things: a drawing of Gabe the Great battling an ogre, a card, and a letter. Gabe opened the letter first, reading it quickly, and let out a scream. It only contained a few sentences, but that was all he needed.

Hey Gabe, I talked to Jonathan and he said that next summer you can come volunteer at Hawkins Post. You'd be doing things like bringing coffee, not actual journaling, but I'd thought you'd want whatever was offered.

Hawkins Post! Where he dreamed of working. He'd never thought he'd get an actual opportunity to work there, even as a volunteer. He'd known from Nancy that the workers there had been sexist assholes (and, given their track record, probably racist, too), but now that they were... gone, this opened up a new opportunity for him.

Gabe's smile grew enormous. This was already the best gift out of the bunch (although he'd never tell the others that) and there was still the card left. Gabe opened it (on the front was a detailed drawing of Gabe blowing out candles on a birthday cake) to find Will's neat handwriting yet again.

Dear Gabe—

Happy belated birthday. You remember, back at the mall, when I said I wanted to tell you this secret for your birthday? I chickened out then, and I'm really sorry for that, but, you know, I don't want to lose your friendship. You mean so much to me, and I can't lose you, but I can't keep holding this in anymore. It's driving me crazy. So... please keep an open mind, okay? I need to tell you this alone.

-Will.

Gabe looked up at Will Byers, who was avoiding eye contact, and then stared back down at the words, his heart racing. What was Will talking about? What did he need to keep an open mind about? Why did he seem so reluctant to tell him? Why did he think it'd make their friendship dissolve? Gabe knew nothing Will could tell him would ever do that. Nothing about Will was wrong. Nothing about Will could be.

"Will?" he said, causing the boy's eyes to shoot up and meet his. His face was tomato red, but he swallowed and slowly nodded his head.

"I'll tell you inside."

And, ignoring the party's confused looks and comments, the two of them headed inside Gabe's house, making their way up to his room. Gabe sat on the end of his neatly made bed, which had another set of balloons tied around the bedpost, and, after a moment, Will sat beside him, head in hands.

"What is it?" Gabe asked, his heart pumping hard. He reached out, taking the boy's hand, but, uncharacteristically, Will jerked it away, his breathing heavy.

"Gabe," he said slowly after a moment, "I can't—I can't keep lying to you anymore. I know this might make you hate me, but I just... I just have to let it out. If I bottle it in, I really am going to go insane. I'm sorry about the mall... I'm... I'm such a coward. And I'm just scared. Really scared."

"Well, I think at this point, we know fear intimately," said Gabe. "Will, please, just tell me. I promise, nothing you could say would ever make me hate you. You're... I... I love you, man. And we've been friends for a while now, you know? You were always the one who I felt actually listened instead of just tolerating my rambling. You were the one who stuck by me when everything went to shit. Please, Will, you don't have to be scared."

"I am," Will whispered. "But... but..." he sucked in a breath. "Okay, no more stalling. I have to do this. I have to do this."

And then he was taking a great big breath, and saying, "Gabriel Jacob Burton, I... I think I might love you. And I know it's wrong, and I know I thought I'd never fall in love, but I can't help my feelings and it's driving me insane. I've never felt this way about anyone, girls or boys, and I know you might hate me, but I can't change it. No matter how many times I try and fall in love with anyone else, my mind keeps straying back to you, and I'm terrified. You're the one who taught me that it was okay to not be okay, that it was okay to be hurting. You're the one who was there when I destroyed Castle Byers and tried to convince me not to. You're a constant in the raging river of change, and please, please, keep staying my friend even though I love you. Because I do. I really, really do."

Gabe thought he might actually pass out. Like, literally, pass out. Here he was, shoving his own feelings for Will down because he was so scared Will would hate him for them, and it turned out Will had been doing the exact same thing. It was impossible, because Gabe had thought he was a freak for feeling them no matter how many times he told himself otherwise, and even his confession to Alina, although making him feel a little more normal, had only temporarily lightened the weight.

"Will..." Gabe's mind was whirling so hard he could barely form a coherent sentence. He swallowed heavily. "Will, I can't... I can't... holy shit."

"We can't be together," said Will. "I know."

"No, that's not what I was going to say!" cried Gabe. "Holy shit, no it wasn't. Will, what I was going to say was that I've... I've been into you since last year. And I thought it was so wrong, because you're a boy, but I couldn't help it. You're just... you're perfect, William Byers. And I think I love you, too."

Will sat back. "You're not just saying that, right? Like, you don't just feel bad for me?"

"No! I'm not going to lie to you, Will. I like you, I really like you."

Will breathed out a heaving breath. Some color returned to his cheeks. "Holy shit."

Gabe found himself grinning, even though it hurt his face. A light giddiness had made its way into his chest, and he pinched himself, sure this was just a dream. But pain reverberated up his arm, meaning that he was completely, one-hundred-percent awake. "This is insane," he said. "I thought this would be impossible."

"What do we... what do we do now?" Will asked.

"I have no idea," said Gabe. "What do couples do? Oh shit, are we like, a couple? I know we can't tell most people or... really do it in public, but can we be a secret couple? I've never been in a relationship before. I don't really know what to do. Hold hands? We already do that."

He didn't know what he expected Will to say. He just knew that he didn't expect him to lean in, or for their lips to meet on what was the best birthday present he'd ever gotten in his life.

Gabe threaded his hands through Will's hair as fireworks exploded beneath his lips. Warmth rushed through his cheeks, ran through his veins, and he went lightheaded, as if the world was drifting away beneath his feet. The kiss tasted like red velvet cake and heaven, and Gabe never wanted to let go. This was a dream that had come to life, and Gabe was determined to savour it for as long as he could.

But like a lot of dreams, Gabe and Will's dream was to be eventually shattered. And, unfortunately, it seemed that it would barely have time to even form, because just a few days later, everything decided to fall apart.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n:

GILL!! GILL!! GILL!! GILL!! GILL!! GILL!!

IT'S CANON GUYS!! I DID IT!!! GABE AND WILL FINALLY CONFESSED THEIR FEELINGS!!!!!

i've been waiting for SO LONG for this chapter holy shit. this was the longest slow burn i've ever set up, and it drove me INSANE to write. they literally took almost a YEAR to get together, and meanwhile i was behind the keyboard SCREAMING at them to just tell each other how they feel!! ahhh!

unfortunately, stranger things doesn't like my happiness, because you all know what happens next </3 i PROMISE you, if i could've avoided the next chapter, if i could've ended this book here, i WOULD. i'm literally going to cry i just want them to be happy 🥺

'till next time!