gif isn't working rn so just imagine mike and jude here:(

"Stop being a baby and do it already!" Mike hollered at Lucas the next day, Will still absent from school after his bad episodes on the field yesterday. "Do you care to help out, Jude?"

The boy held a finger up, reading until he finished his line, then looked up. "What?"

Mike rolled his eyes with a loud groan, only causing the Mackenzie boy to look back down at his book.

"What the hell's going on?" Dustin asked as he ran up to the trio, Lucas still in the dumpster.

"What do you think? We're looking for Dart." Mike spoke, leaning on his stick. He spoke loudly suddenly. "Most of us, anyways!"

"Jesus!" Dustin yelled as bags on trash flew over the side, Lucas throwing his legs over and jumping out.

"Well, well, well." Lucas glared at him. "Look who finally decided to show up. After I drew the short straw. Real convenience."

"It's convenient." Jude corrected him, eyes still down on his pages, flipping away.

"You stink." Max gave a gross look to Lucas, walking away and standing near Dustin instead.

"You think Dustin smells any better?" Jude looked up at her, from where he sat on the steps. "He smells like sticky syrup! Gag in my mouth."

"Why do you have such an attitude today?" Mike gave him a crazy look.

"Why do you chew so loud? Some things we just do not know." Jude threw his hands up in disbelief. "All i'm saying is, Max, if you don't wanna smell syrup, you can sit with me. I happen to smell like watermelon and bergamot."

"Oh, god, give me a break." Mike rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"Is this what you're use to? Making all the girls swoon and have them sit next to you no matter what?" Max gave Jude a look of disbelief. "No thanks."

"W-W-I-" Jude stumbled over his words.

"W-W-I what? Can't stand that someone isn't falling at your feet for once?" Max crossed her arms his way.

"Where's Will?" Dustin spoke up.

"He'll be here." Mike nodded.

"Are you just gonna stand there?" Lucas asked as he tossed a stick his way. "Or are you gonna help?"

"Anything?" Lucas called later when Mike tried to call the Byers house from the pay phone out back.

"We need to talk. AV room. Right now." Mike ran there way. Jude slapped his book shut, standing up and following him toward the door. Mike turned to Max when she began to follow. "Party members only."

"Mike." Dustin gave a look of disbelief.

"No! This is non-negotiable." Mike said sternly, yanking the door open as the three headed in after him quickly. Jude opened the AV room, letting Mike go in before following, nearly hitting Dustin in the face with the door in the process.

"Will didn't want me to tell anyone, but on Halloween night he saw a sort of shadow in the sky." Mike spoke when they all sat down together, turning the lamp on.

"A shadow?" Lucas asked. "What kind of shadow?"

"I don't know. But it scared him." Mike looked at the pair, then turned his head to Jude next to him. "And if Will really has True Sight, I mean if he can really see into the Upside Down, maybe he saw that shadow again yesterday."

"So that's why he was frozen like that?" Dustin asked curiously.

"Maybe." Mike agreed.

"It makes sense." Jude admitted.

"Can it hurt him?" Lucas wondered. "I mean, if this shadow thing isn't from our world.."

"I'm not sure." Mike said honestly, looking at the boy next to him. "Jude?"

"Theoretically maybe somehow it can. I mean, like, if there's apart of it's self in Will." Jude spoke with a small shrug of his shoulders, the collar of his striped shirt rubbing his neck. "But it's hard to know when there isn't anything we can look up for this."

"If you're in another plane, you can't interact with the material plane, so theoretically, no, the shadow can't hurt him." Dustin spoke, referring to what he knew from D&D.

"Yeah, if that's even what's happening." Mike said with an odd look. "This isn't D&D. This is real life. Jude could be right."

"So what do we do?" Lucas looked between the trio.

"We acquire more knowledge." Mike sat up straight. "Jude and I will go to Wills house after school. See what's going on. You guys stay here and find Dart."

"Dart? What's he got to do with this?" Dustin asked quickly and defensively.

"Will didn't have the really bad episode until he showed up." Jude gave a knowing look.

"Will heard him in the Upside Down. I don't know how yet, but he's gotta be connected to all this. He's gotta be." Mike stared over at Dustin seriously. "If we find Dart, maybe we can solve this thing. Maybe we can help Will."

"Oh, you son of a bitch. Mother f-stupid cheap, asshole, bike." Jude ranted on as he tried to fix his bike chain. "Is this a joke? Is this a joke?"

Mike rode up beside him in the parking lot. "What are you doing?"

"The dumbass chain broke." Jude huffed, standing up straight. "Can we walk?"

"Hop on, we'll come get it tomorrow." Mike nodded to the back of his bike. Jude pulled his bag onto his shoulder, tightening it before climbing on. "Are you on?"

Jude held his waist with one hand and pumped one fist into the air. "Remember the Alamo!"

"Oh, my god. You are so annoying." Mike rolled his eyes, kicking off the side walk and peddling away with Jude on the back.

"Jesus." Jude mumbled as he looked around the room at all the drawings Will drew, Joyce putting them into maps on the wall.

"It's like...it's like I feel what the shadow monsters feeling. See what he's doing." Will explained to his pair of friends.

"Like in the Upside Down?" Mike asked, turning his head from the drawings.

Will nodded. "Some of him is there. But some of him is here, too."

"Here, like, in this house?" Mike asked. Jude sat down on Wills bed with him.

"In this house and... in me." Wills voice broke. Jude looked at Mike, knowing his previous statement from the AV club was correct. "It's like- it's like he's reaching into Hawkins more and more. And the more he spreads, the more connected to him I feel."

Jude put an arm around him while Mike sat on his other side. "And the more you see these now-memories."

"At first I just felt it in the back of my head. I didn't even really know it was there. It's like when you have a dream and you can't remember it unless you think really hard. It was like that." Will explained to the pair on either side of him. "But now it's like-now I remember. I remember all the time."

Jude, never the best at words, rubbing his shoulders comfortingly.

"Maybe..maybe that's good." Mike spoke a second later.

"Good?" Will turned his head in disbelief.

"Just think about it, Will. You're like a spy now. A superspy. Spying on the shadow monster." Mike gave him a small grin.

"And Mike and I are like your helpless side kicks that you keep around just because you like our company." Jude grinned at the small boy, slapping Mikes shoulder with his hand around Will.

"If you know what he's seeing and feeling...maybe that's how we can stop him. Maybe all this is happening for a reason." Mike explained better, leaning down some to be on Wills level greatly.

"You really think so?" Will looked over at him under Jude's arm.

"Yeah. Yeah, I really do." Mike smiled at him. The trio looked over at Wills drawing of the Shadow Monster in the corner.

"What if he figured out we're spying on him? What if he spies back?" Will began to panic again.

"He won't." Mike promised.

"How do you know?" Will looked down.

"We won't let him." Jude promised.

•

kylie speaks

season two mike has
such a soft place in my
heart.
currently burning my
watermelon and bergamot
candle bc i went to the store
today for christmas shopping and smelt that one and thought
of jude for some reason!

*my sign off gif isn't working rn
so just pretend ron eating chicken is here *