refrigeratorlights
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Summary
Will Byers has spent his entire life learning how to make himself smaller.
How to ration breath. How to ration truth.
How to decide he's fine before anyone can argue with him.Loving him has always required a certain kind of attentiveness— noticing the pauses, the quiet corrections, the way he carries more than he lets anyone see. Mike Wheeler does this instinctively, long before he understands why. Long before he understands what it will cost him.
As hospital stays grow longer and timelines grow less generous, Mike is forced to confront a version of love that offers no guarantees: one that can't be fixed, cured, or saved by staying up late or loving harder. Only chosen, again and again.
This is a story about borrowed time, the weight of staying, and about what it means to love someone even when you already know the ending.
Or:
Will is dying.
Mike loves him anyway. -
something simple (give you my heart) by refrigeratorlights
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
22 Dec 2025
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Mike writes a song before he understands why he needs it.
At first, it's just something to fill the margins of his notebook— unfinished lines, crossed-out words, thoughts that feel easier to keep small. No matter how hard he tries to tell himself it's nothing, every lyric seems to lead back to Will.
The song changes as Mike does. It stops being something to fix or perfect and becomes something he's tired of hiding. When he finally lets Will hear it, it isn't about the music at all— it's about choosing to be seen.
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A Mike-centric oneshot about music, unfinished words, and learning when to stop being so silent. Loosely inspired by "I Want to Write You a Song" by One Direction. -
a fault you could follow (if you weren't so afraid of falling) by refrigeratorlights
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
15 Dec 2025
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And for the first time in a long time, Mike isn’t scared.
He doesn’t feel ashamed of the way his heart beats too fast, or the way it’s always known where it belongs. He doesn’t feel like the little boy he once was—hands red and aching, glitter still clinging stubbornly to his fingers, terrified that wanting something too much meant losing it.
Mike Wheeler has always believed that loving Will Byers is something to endure.
Something quiet and private. Something you survive rather than choose. Something you bury beneath loyalty, fear, and the unspoken understanding that wanting too much is dangerous—especially when the world already knows exactly where to hurt you.But some truths don’t stay buried.
As a year of silence gives way to proximity, to touch, and to the quiet devastation of being seen, Mike is forced to confront what he’s been running from all along: not the fear of losing Will, but the fear of wanting him openly. Of choosing him without bracing for impact.
Because earthquakes don’t always destroy things.
Sometimes, they reveal what was always there—waiting to be held without shaking.
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Mike pushes into his hands, but Will keeps him still.
"Ask again," he says. Because he's greedy, and he wants Mike to want him.
He stares at Will's mouth. "Please."
"Again."
El is gone.
Will tries to figure out how to move on in New York, and Mike follows him. Their apartment is haunted not by ghosts, but by the two of them.
Or: Catastrophically traumatized boys cling to each other and accidentally figure out how to be close—too close—while moving through their grief.
Series
- Part 1 of Supervoid
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“Dustin’s your Tammy?” And it shouldn’t bother him. Not really. But what the fuck? What does Dustin have that Mike doesn’t?
“Dustin is, without a doubt, not my Tammy.” Will hums, serene as can be. Which is pretty annoying, considering Mike’s sort of wanted to fight Dustin since the words came out of his mouth.
“Oh. You’re sure?”
“Pretty positive, yeah.” Will laughs.
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Mike buries his face in Will’s stomach, hugging his waist. “Please, please, please.”
Vulnerable to the point he lets himself indulge in physical contact he has never dared to do before.
Will puts his hand on the back of Mike’s head, patting his head gently. He is astonished, lips falling open, he tries to register what is fully going on.
Mike Wheeler on his knees, begging and crying for him to give him a chance—as Max intended.
Holy shit, crying on his knees.
Bookmarked by refrigeratorlights
24 Jan 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
pathetic mike wheeler, oh how I love you 😭
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"So you- you haven't, like. Kissed anyone, then?" Mike asks, fully aware that he should probably just quit while he's ahead but needing to know, suddenly, if Will has any sort of romantic entanglements that he's neglected to tell Mike about. He's not sure why, but there's something in his gut that demands to know, has some sort of sudden need to know if Will has kissed anyone that's not him.
If Will has kissed anyone that's not-
Wait, what?
or: Mike is jealous of himself.
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This is the first girl who’s ever asked Mike out — something he had, in the not too distant past, been terrified would never happen. And Mike just stands there, feeling like his dining hall dinner is about to crawl back up his esophagus.
Jeremy, Saint Jeremy, nudges him with an elbow. “He’s kind of private about it, but Mike actually has someone back home.”
Mike turns his head to look at Jeremy, expecting a knowing smile or the hint of a wink. But Jeremy actually looks sincere, which makes Mike’s eyebrows sink down, almost to the top of his nose.
“Will, right?” Jeremy supplies, forever trying to be helpful. “He’s at CalArts?”
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Bookmarked by refrigeratorlights
19 Jan 2026