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"Daniel came in this afternoon," Will starts, looking up at the painting of the party so he doesn't have to look in Mike's dark eyes.
"I remember," Mike interrupts in agitation. "I wish he'd try to burn the place down just so I could ban him."
"Right.." Will continues, with a great amount of hesitancy now. "Well, he asked me on a date. A movie date, tomorrow night, and we're going to get dinner. But I didn't think that was safe, so he suggested we bring someone so we look like a friend group, but it would have to be someone we trusted and I trust you, so I guess I'm asking if you'll go on a date with me?"
Will pauses his rambling, breathing unevenly and waiting on Mike's answer. The other boy sits up slowly, keeping his back to Will and looking contemplative, if a bit unreadable.
This was his chance for a real relationship, a chance for all those teen firsts he'd never had, and he knows he can like Danny. He's not going to blow his chance.
/OR/ Will gets asked out on a date, and asks Mike to come along to make it less obviously a date to outside people. Ft. Dramatic 17 year olds, rain fight parallels, jealous Mike Wheeler, and unrequited affection (but its not between byler)
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
07 Feb 2026
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Mike sighs, looking down at his hands. "I always thought I would end up with someone more similar to me, you know? Someone I can talk about, like, hobbies and music and stuff with, without them visibly losing interest halfway through.”
You have more in common with him than El, says the voice in Will’s head. He wonders, briefly, whether it would be weird to shove his face back into the pillow and scream.
Will is definitely not qualified to be giving out any relationship advice. For one, he's never actually dated anyone before. Second, one of the people in said relationship is his sister. And third, the other person is the guy he's sort of in love with. There's no possible way this could backfire. Right?
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 27,550
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 227
- Kudos:
- 5,632
- Bookmarks:
- 1,313
- Hits:
- 61,222
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
07 Feb 2026
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You are the best thing that’s ever been mine by psychotic_fangirl369
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
04 Dec 2025
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The compliments had started small.
“You did good,” Will had murmured, a few hours after the battle, as Mike tried very hard not to cry or pass out and Will clung to consciousness by a breath. And then, the next day, “Thanks for always being there for me. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Totally normal. Totally Will. Mike could handle that.
But then it… spiralled.
“Your hair looks good today,” Will said one morning in the kitchen while trying (and failing) to pour cereal without spilling half the box.
Or, as they were walking to the Byers’ car: “I love your freckles. You know that, right?”
💕💕💕💕
Will starts complimenting Mike.
Mike stops functioning.
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this). by burgundyshirts
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
11 Aug 2022
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The first time it happens, Will classifies it as a little accident.
When he wakes, the morning sun is burning through the window onto their faces, and Mike’s cursing as he stands to close the curtains, stumbling all the way.
“Scoot over,” he grumbles, voice dry, and for a second Will can’t do anything other than sigh like a lovesick idiot. It’s a second too late for Mike, because he grumbles more words Will doesn’t catch under his breath and then physically pushes Will towards the wall to lay beside him, arm over Will’s middle. A second of silence passes, then Mike sighs, only to whine: “Fuck, my head hurts.”
Will can’t help it: he breaks down laughing, much to Mike’s offense.
---------------
Alternatively: five times Mike kissed Will, and one time Will kissed back.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 16,834
- Chapters:
- 3/3
- Collections:
- 5
- Comments:
- 874
- Kudos:
- 23,131
- Bookmarks:
- 4,706
- Hits:
- 263,921
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“Nah, man,” Lucas shakes his head, leaning back as he snacks on an apple, “he got, like, buff. Do you see his arms?”
Mike does, in fact, see Will’s arms. He has not stopped seeing his arms.
“She definitely sees his arms,” Dustin very unhelpfully points out, waggling his eyebrows, and Mike gets the overwhelming urge to bash his own head in.While volunteering at the Hawkins' help center, it seems like every girl around has a newfound interest in Will Byers, and Mike doesn't know why he feels the way he does.
(Based on this tweet.)- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 9,336
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 283
- Kudos:
- 14,073
- Bookmarks:
- 2,596
- Hits:
- 108,998
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“And I know, it’s not your fault. Trust me, I haven’t forgotten.”
Shit. Mike was really hoping that would never come up.
“I know, I know, I know it’s not your fault. But you know what?” Will steps closer, “it doesn’t change the fact that it feels like your fault.” With a shove on Mike’s shoulder, he painfully adds, “it feels like it’s all your fault.”
When everyone suddenly masters the art of communication, Mike and Will give it a shot. They don't get it right on the first try.
OR: 5 steps Mike takes towards the truth, and 1 leap Will makes towards destiny.
Series
- Part 1 of on the way home
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 80,513
- Chapters:
- 10/10
- Comments:
- 412
- Kudos:
- 1,657
- Bookmarks:
- 431
- Hits:
- 40,295
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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It takes one, two, three seconds before Will’s heart starts beating again. And another three before he remembers to be mad at him about it. “Don’t call me that,” he protests weakly, but it’s no use. Mike’s grin only grows.
“Anything for you, Your Highness.”
“Michael,” Will hisses, yanking his hand away, but Mike is already laughing. It’s always been easy to get a rise out of him where Mike is involved, which is a fact Mike not only knows, but exploits on the regular. “I’m going to put the venom back in your arm and let your flesh rot off your body.”
Will really wishes Mike would learn that armor does not equate to invincibility. For Mike's own sake, it's probably a good thing Will knows magic.
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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I Never Find Out 'Til I'm Head Over Heels by orphan_account
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
07 May 2017
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Wherein Mike believes he’s being obvious, Will doesn’t know what he believes, and the pair of them could use a lesson or two in effective communication. Somehow all of this has both nothing and everything to do with five years' worth of school dances.
(This piece was written for the Stranger Things Big Bang)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 12,548
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 203
- Kudos:
- 9,218
- Bookmarks:
- 1,504
- Hits:
- 87,808
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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would it really kill you if we kissed by delusionaltogether (Whyyyyy)
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
08 Nov 2022
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in which mike won't stop implying things, will won't stop freaking out about it, and the party thinks they're both idiots.
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“Woah,” Will whispers to himself incredulously, laughing a little under his breath as he shuffles through the pages of the letter again. He can’t help but admire the smooth, off-white stationery, its pleasant weight in his hands. A serious-looking “MJW” watermark adorns the top of each page, totally at odds with the entertaining missive and its author’s garbled cursive. Will laughs quietly to himself again. What sixteen-year-old boy on earth has monogrammed stationery?
Michael J. Wheeler, apparently. Where did Max find this guy?
Mike Wheeler is insecure, even by normal teenage standards. So when his friend, Max, connects him with her old friend from California, he's surprised by how easily they get along. But as the weeks wear on, their letters grow increasingly personal, and they make plans to embark on a week-long trip, Mike can't let go of one inconvenient, anxiety-inducing thought: What if he wants to be more than friends?
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 43,463
- Chapters:
- 20/20
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 457
- Kudos:
- 1,775
- Bookmarks:
- 587
- Hits:
- 25,256
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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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?”
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 12,635
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Comments:
- 265
- Kudos:
- 3,224
- Bookmarks:
- 861
- Hits:
- 33,223
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“No. No, Mike, can you hear me?” He nods, ever so slightly. It’s enough for Will. If he’s dying— if these are truly the last words that will ever be spoken between them— there’s only one thing he can say. “I love you. I’m in love with you, Mike, please. You can’t go. I love you so much,” Will whispers, cradling his body to his chest.
—
Will confesses his feelings as Mike takes his last breaths— and then Mike decides to be a stubborn asshole about it and survives. Will is left to deal with the aftermath of his choice, navigating an awkward new friendship.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 36,314
- Chapters:
- 10/10
- Comments:
- 437
- Kudos:
- 5,947
- Bookmarks:
- 1,380
- Hits:
- 85,025
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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Will raises his eyebrows. “Is that why you came in here?” he repeats, looking back down at the blue flannel. “To ask me about the weather in Lenora?”
“Kind of,” Mike says, and then, “well no, not about the weather specifically. I just– I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh.” And Will looks a lot more surprised at this, actually, than the idea that Mike might have just wanted to come to his room to make small talk about unseasonably frigid California winters. “Okay. What about?”
“Anything.” The response is embarrassingly immediate. “Everything. I don’t know. I missed you.”
Hawkins, 1986. The world is ending, there are too many people in Mike's house, and to top it all off, he and Will have some things to talk through.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 77,728
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Comments:
- 569
- Kudos:
- 8,995
- Bookmarks:
- 2,568
- Hits:
- 189,909
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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i'll kidnap all the stars (and i will keep them in your eyes) by delusionaltogether (Whyyyyy)
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
10 Oct 2023
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Will blinks again. Their noses bump. Mike is so close. “I, um. What?” he hisses out, voice hoarse. It can’t be- there’s no way Mike means-
Mike looks mortified, but he’s also not moving away. “Do you think there's a universe,” he repeats, slow and shaky, “where you and I are- you know.”
“Mike,” Will says, verging on exasperated, but too shaky to fully accomplish the tone he’s going for. He can feel Mike’s heart racing where it’s pressed against his own. “Use your words.”
“I want to kiss you,” Mike blurts, dazed and harried. A strand of hair falls into his eyes, and it tickles Will’s cheek with their proximity.
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“Dude,” Dustin says, sounding kind of horrified but also kind of delirious with elation. “Oh my God, you like him. You like Will. Will. As in, our Will. Our best friend Will.”
“I do not–” Mike tries, even though he’d kind of just admitted to accidentally kissing Will Byers, a little, so maybe that’s an entirely fruitless road to go down.
Listen. No one should ever let Mike make decisions right after he wakes up from a nap, okay? Especially not decisions where Will is concerned. This is so not his fault.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 9,331
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 225
- Kudos:
- 12,539
- Bookmarks:
- 2,090
- Hits:
- 95,873
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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the great big mystery of mike wheeler's no good, very bad, terrible feelings by smoosnoom (moonsooms)
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
27 Apr 2023
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It’s at that very moment that, for reasons completely and utterly unknown to anyone at all, every single possible word he has ever learned from any language ever has suddenly disappeared from his brain, and his throat feels relevant to the Sahara Desert.
None of this, of course, has to do with the fact that Will is very, very, very – shirtless.
Will blinks at him. “Are you okay?”
“Shoulders,” Mike says, sounding vaguely chipmunk-like, and he hears Max barely choke down a snicker.
Will comes back for the summer, and Mike deals with it.
Kind of. Not really.- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 13,641
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 156
- Kudos:
- 6,225
- Bookmarks:
- 1,209
- Hits:
- 56,921
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“You’re thinking,” Will says, skating a finger down the line of Mike’s nose, under his eye, over his cheekbone, then resting, finally, just at the corner of his lips– “about me.”
Oh, Jesus. Mike’s throat is very, very dry. “What?”
Will opens his eyes – slow, a little hesitant – and smiles. “You are,” he says, way, way too smug for Mike’s liking. “You’re turning red!”
“Shut up,” Mike mutters, and Will’s smile grows. “You– I’m just nervous!”
It should be illegal for someone to look this pleased with themselves. “Yeah?” Will says quietly, index finger still hovering at the corner of Mike’s mouth, thumb pressed gently under his chin. “I make you nervous?”
Mike thinks Will might be psychic. (Kind of.) Will is being very irritatingly vague about the whole thing.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 9,736
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 213
- Kudos:
- 12,005
- Bookmarks:
- 2,213
- Hits:
- 99,370
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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the windows of this love by delusionaltogether (Whyyyyy)
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
12 Jun 2023
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Will smiles encouragingly at him, swiping his tears away and kissing his forehead again. "Let's make a deal, okay?" he murmurs, voice low and full of a bittersweet sort of hope. "If in five years we're both doing better, and we're not dating anyone else-" Mike blanches at the concept of dating anyone else, of Will dating anyone else- "we can try again, okay?"
Five years sounds like a terribly long time. In five years, Mike will be twenty-three. He'll be done with college, will have a career, could be living anywhere in the world for all he knows, and the same goes for Will.
But five years is a whole lot less than forever, so Mike will take it.
In the summer of 1989, Mike and Will fall apart. Five years later, they fall back together.
Series
- Part 1 of take the long way home
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 53,755
- Chapters:
- 4/4
- Comments:
- 469
- Kudos:
- 3,464
- Bookmarks:
- 1,156
- Hits:
- 80,500
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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“Okay,” Mike echoes. “So, I was – thinking. We should sleep together.”
Will, for some reason, still looks lost, but he looks cute – sweet, like that, pink cheeks and eyes wide and glossy and the slight furrow of his eyebrows like Mike has given him something outlandish.
“I,” he starts, “don’t understand.”
Mike proposes a sleepover.
Unsurprisingly, no sleeping is done.Series
- Part 7 of one-scene
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026
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I love you, I love you forever by psychotic_fangirl369
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
20 Nov 2025
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The first time Mike Wheeler told Will Byers he loved him, they were both standing in the Hawkins Public Library, soaked in demogorgon blood, Vecna’s ashes still settling in the air like cursed snow.
💕💕💕
Mike tells Will “I love you.”
Will tells Mike “I love you too.”
Unfortunately, they are having two completely different conversations.
Bookmarked by dumb_toads
04 Feb 2026