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“I—I would tell you.” He says reflexively, but he doesn’t take it back. The words are true. He hears Mike’s breath catch and his hand twitches. “I just wouldn’t want you to– to pity me. Or see me… differently.”
“I would never.” The response is instant. “You’re strong. I’d never pity you. I… god, how do I explain?” Mike turns his body to face Will head on and grabs his hand properly. Will feels a shiver run through him, but he squeezes back all the same. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, for what you’ve been through, whatever it is. But it would never, never make me look at you differently.”
“Promise?”
“I promise."
Or: Will breaks down after the events at the MAC Z and trusts Mike to help him pick up the pieces.
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The cicadas in the sunset are your guide by ladyconspicuous
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
27 Jan 2026
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A glorious flush bloomed across Will's face and he looked away. Mike didn't miss the chance to trace his eyes over Will's neck, watching his Adam's apple bob.
“Maybe you trust me too much,” Will said quietly.
“Not possible,” Mike replied.
OR
It's the summer of 1988 and Mike Wheeler is a coward. He's so in love it's sickening, but even when the world was ending last year, he couldn't bring himself to admit it.
Luckily, Will is brave enough for the both of them.
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rolled it up a hill, like a ball of snow by chocolair
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
24 Dec 2025
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She blinks. "Oh. Well, we volunteered together. You know, there were, like, signals."
His brows come together. "Signals?"
"Yeah, you know, like a brush of the knee, a bump of the elbow, a shared look," she offers, her wide eyes on his. "It all just kind of accrued, like a snowball rolling down a hill until it was obvious."
A heat coils inside of his chest, something he'd now dare to name as hope. "How obvious?"
She takes a peek through the window, a smile on her face. "Let's just say the, uh, snowball became an avalanche."
Or, a collection of several moments in which a snowball began to pick up speed.
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nobody's ever loved me like you do by unidentifiedblackthorn
Fandom Stranger Things (TV 2016)
13 Sep 2022
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“Come to NYU,” he says. Mouth moving before he really knows what he’s saying, what he’s offering. Thinking not about Mom, or Mike, or the ghosts of this town, but of himself, and what he wants. “With me. You and Lucas. Let’s all go. I’m sick of Hawkins.”
(or: will byers and the art of moving on.)
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i have become comfortably numb (this is not how i am) by astradern
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
16 Jan 2026
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That thing in Mike’s chest twists low, and Mike brings his cup up to his mouth to down and drown it.
“She really loved you,” Will says gently, like he’s offering it. And Mike hates it, but he is really tired of everyone telling him this. Like it’s supposed to be a comfort. Like Mike should hold onto it. So he tries to drown it again, but his cup is empty and he doesn’t know what to do with himself because Will is still looking at him like he’s meant to say something in return. He doesn’t know what to say.He doesn’t want this.
He stops walking.Mike’s heart is pounding now. Too fast. Too loud. The blood rushing in and out and in again. His head feels full, liek there’s too much pressing up against the inside of his skull and no way to let it out cleanly. Without bleeding out here in the woods.
“Mike?”
“I can’t–” he starts, and doesn’t finish. He doesn’t know what he was going to say anyway.
Will’s face softens, and he steps forward, a hand coming up to Mike’s arm. “Hey, it’s okay,” he’s saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to–”Mike moves before he can think better of it.
OR: They go to Stacey's fucking party because the Duffers are cowards and I'm not.
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“Do you know what you’re painting?” Mike asks. Maybe if they can figure out what Will is painting, they can unlock his memories.
Will pauses, considering the painting, then his eyes light up and he smiles.
“That’s the boy I love,” Will says, looking at the painting. Then he turns to Mike. “Thank you. I couldn’t remember.”
“Do you know his name?”
--
Soon after they enter the Abyss, Mike realizes that Will is possessed, and he's forced to confront the Mind Flayer. Then, Vecna dies, and so does Will—and Mike will do anything to get him back, even if that means going into a trance and entering a new mindscape, where he finds a Will who has lost all of his memories.
An alternate ending to the series finale, starting at the 42:18 mark.
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Something Inside Me to Keep You Bedside Me by paper_star
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
15 Jan 2026
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“A nice little heart to heart,” Mike repeats quietly. “About my dead girlfriend.”
“And his dead sister,” Dustin adds, unperturbed.
Or: Post-canon fix-it, from graduation. Four summers, four winter breaks, and four spring breaks in which Mike Wheeler needs to figure his shit out.
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Avoiding Will has always been a problem, because Will is everywhere.
He is in his real life, in his D&D campaigns, on his walls, in the Upside Down, and he’s trampled all over Mike’s heart so many times there are grooves made from Will Byers’ footprints.
He is at the heart of the fear Mike hosts in his body. Will is Mike’s own, personal Mind Flayer.
Yes, avoiding Will has always been a problem.
But so has wanting him.
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Summary
Mike dreads the nights.
Not for any of the reasons he'd deem "normal," whatever that godforsaken word even means. He's not afraid of the dark, nor what lies in it, no, he fears the stillness. That empty stretch of hours where shadows fall, the world itself falling silent.
The nights give Mike the time to think, and good god, Mike does not want to be given the time to think.
OR: Somehow, Mike and Will would be doing alright if it wasn't for the nights.
(If it wasn't for the nights, they think that they could take it.) -
I Don't Think There's a Name for It (But it's Kinda Like Being In Love) by occasionalpisser
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
07 Jan 2026
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Mike (idiot that he is) still doesn't know what this unnameable thing is, but what he does know is that it's always been there. Has always been inside of him, has always swirled within the depths of his chest, and has always tried to make itself known whenever he was (and is) in the presence of Will Byers.
But seeing Will in this new light was the equivalent of being whacked across the head with a baseball bat. A baseball bat built solely to amplify any and all already present feelings, making them impossible to ignore. Suddenly, the thing inside him wasn’t quiet anymore. No, it was (and is) loud. Loud enough to override all the other thoughts that should be occupying his brain space right now, and loud enough that even he can’t shove it back into whatever mental closet he’d kept it in.
OR: Mike doesn't clock it. Robin does.
(And then Mike does. And then Will does, too.) -
baby i can't fight this feeling anymore by peskeynonbinary
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
24 Dec 2025
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In his almost 17 years being alive, Will has learned many things. Very high on that list is that there’s a fine line between “best friend” and “something more.”
Michael Wheeler uses that line like a fucking jump rope.
“You… wish I had saved just you?”
or; Mike and Will chat after the Mac-Z
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“There’s going to be a moment when I’m going to need to say the exact right thing to him.” The boy’s eyes are wide, every word punctuated. “I just— I just know it.”
He pauses, eyes downturned into a frown again, lips pursed as he shakes his head. This time, Jonathan waits as Mike catches his breath a little, moving backwards to lean against the truck.
“His painting—“ Mike starts again, and Jonathan sucks in a silent breath. “—he said I was the heart. He said it, so I— I have to be, but I… don’t even know what it means.” The younger boy’s hand grasps at his vest, over his chest. His voice is quiet, now, with a fragility Jonathan hardly ever knew. “I need to know, when I speak to him… if I’m the party’s heart, or his.”
And when Mike finally looks at Jonathan, it strikes him—the sheer vulnerability in Mike’s eyes, the well of emotion behind them which had long ago been replaced in Jonathan’s mental image of him by a shell of sulky indifference. It’s like seeing another boy entirely, and then—
Jonathan Byers is 12.
or,
In 1980 and 1987, Jonathan Byers helps Mike Wheeler find the words. -
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Summary
Mike Wheeler’s carefully assembled armor is chipping away. The helm that hides his face and every expression he wears is crumbling to dust at his feet.
He’s about to do something stupid, anyone in the Party can tell.
“... he was just my Tammy.”
Who the fuck was Tammy?
Or, Mike Wheeler and the terrifying ordeal of being seen without his heavy armor— and truly understanding what it means to be Mike the Brave.
(A post-volume 2 Mike Wheeler redemption)
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Mike clicked his tongue consideringly and glanced sideways at Will. “Can I say something super dumb?” he asked.
“Since when do you need permission?”
He rolled his eyes and grinned. “I was just thinking, I bet we could survive a week down here together.”
Oh, Will wanted to kiss that unaffected smile right off his stupidly pretty mouth. He shook his head, half in denial and half to clear his thoughts away. “Wh—what? Why? No we couldn’t.”
Mike stretched his arms high over his head, letting out a strained little groan of effort, and Will tried not to scream. “I think we’d figure it out. We’d learn all the tricks, like that scary place in that one movie.”
—
In the last stretch of downtime before the team sets their plan in motion, Will has two of the conversations he’s been avoiding. He talks to Jonathan about being a freak, and to Mike about falling in love.
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Summary
“You know, there were, like, signals."
“Signals?"
“Yeah, you know, a brush of the knee, a bump of the elbow, a shared look. It all just accrued, like a snowball rolling down a hill, until it was obvious."
“How obvious?"
“Let’s just say the, uh, snowball became an avalanche.”Will Byers has spent entirely too much of his life wrapped up in his own head and the horrors around him to be any good at paying attention to other people. But after his conversation with Robin about signals, Will decides it’s finally time to really take a look at what’s going on around him.
Aka five times Mike sends a signal, and one time Will finally sends an unmistakable one back
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why, won't you ever know (that i'm in love with you) by beowulfelia
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
29 Dec 2025
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Summary
"It was like I got so wrapped up in the whole idea of being a boyfriend that I didn’t stop to think about if I actually liked any of it. Maybe I just wanted to be really focused on it so I didn’t have to think about how empty and surface-level it all felt.”
“It?” Will asks quietly.
“You know, all of it. The fights, our conversations, the things we had in common.” Mike finally pauses, hesitating. “Or, maybe I wanted to be really focused on it,” Mike says, slowly now, “so I didn’t have to think about how none of it ever felt empty or surface-level with…”
“With who?”
“With… with you.”While everyone waits around for the world to end, Mike and Will finally have a long-overdue conversation.
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“Wait,” Will said in a harsh, croaky voice. He felt like his brain was dribbling out of his ears and he fell onto the couch with a small poof of air as he stared at Mike in such a hard daze that it was a wonder he didn’t pass out again. “I - what do you - “
They stared at each other.
The air was thick and suddenly it was like Will could taste ozone at the back of his tongue, like electricity was coating his mouth and didn’t leave any room to breathe, to think, and his voice was wobbly, uncertain, as he said, “what do you mean… other boys?”
***
Will tells everybody about his Tammy.
Mike, of course, reacts in a totally normal way.
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Summary
Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, but Mike disagreed.
There was no world where anyone could argue that Will was only beautiful to certain people, because that simply was not true.
Will had been personally crafted by Aphrodite herself and Mike knew, without question, that if a blind person were to press their fingertips against Will's face and dragged them across his skin, they could tell that the boy poured heart-stoppening, maddening beauty from every single one of his pores.
***
Ever since Henry died alongside the Upside Down, Mike spent his nights listening to the breathing of one Will Byers right next to him on his bed.
Mike stared, and he wanted.