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“There’s nothing you can do, Mike.”
Yeah, he thinks. That’s the problem.
“I know,” he concedes. “But I told you: I want to help however I can.”
“You do help,” Will says, simply. “This helps.”The Byers are back in Hawkins, but Will’s life is far from normal. Between the disturbing visions and the whole town treating him like a bad omen, sharing a room with his best friend should be the least of his problems.
Hawkins is under lockdown, but Mike has other priorities. Even with a crumbling relationship and monsters roaming the streets, he can’t stop thinking about his best friend.
Threats loom large while secrets linger, but love has a way of making the apocalypse just a little bit better.
Or: A byler-centric season 5 rewrite that actually addresses The First Shadow
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
24 Sep 2026
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"But ultimately, and against his better judgement, Will Byers loved Mike Wheeler more than he wanted to die. Of course he did. They were intertwined, like kite strings tangled from windy summer days or crisscrossed wires poking out of the TV in Mike’s basement. Mike Wheeler was the mud under Will’s fingernails, the bruises on his knuckles, the air in his lungs. Mike asked Will to run. Will asked how far. Mike asked Will to live, so Will obliged."
Or; a Will Never Found AU, where everything is different, and yet much the same.
~No AI was used for any part in the creation of this work~
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
21 Sep 2026
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Today is the day. California is eagerly waiting for them. All the phone calls have been made, arrangements put together. The trip that has been in the making for over a year by now is finally coming to fruition.
Mike and Will leave together. Dustin and Jane fly out just a little later. Lucas and Max should pick them all up, and from there it's two weeks of them sharing a space and getting on each other's nerves like the old times.
OR:
It's finally summer break, the Party reunite in California and spend two weeks crammed in Max and Lucas's house.
Series
- Part 3 of Mike and Will nervous boyfriends
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
20 Sep 2026
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"For a moment that lingers and echoes inside Will like a fever, they hold each other.
Will feels Mike’s body pressed tight against his. A nose tucked into his neck, curls brushing his chin, arms wrapped around him, fingers clutching the fabric of his T-shirt.
He is grateful to be the one holding Mike like this, to be someone he can find comfort in. He forces himself not to think about anything beyond that. He is grateful for the small mercy of being someone Mike needs."or
Set against Will’s new, shining life in New York, where he convinces himself the best thing he can do for Mike is stay close and help him heal, loving him in silence while moving forward as best as he can. But while Will waits with quiet patience, Mike has spent years feeding something far less gentle, an obsession, a dependence, a devotion sharpened by longing, jealousy and need, all of it threatening to spill over at any moment.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
08 Sep 2026
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“It’s okay,” says the person, voice trembling as they run gentle fingers through Mike’s hair. It feels nice. Even through the pain, it feels nice.
Then again, Mike isn’t used to casual touch. He has spent the past five years pushing it away.
He opens his eyes weakly, grimacing at the sunlight pouring through. It’s blocked by a head, the person he’s sitting on. From this angle, their features are upside down, obscured by the light behind them.
But he can make out some. It’s a young man, maybe around Mike’s age, with brown hair, soft eyes, soft features. He looks kind. He looks gentle.
Truthfully, he looks a lot like—
“Will?” Mike mumbles, blinking wearily.Or: Mike hasn’t been the same for the last five years. Ever since he lost Will, it’s like he’s been wandering aimlessly in search of purpose. But when he stumbles upon a fairy ring that leads to a magic world and a familiar face, he has to determine what exactly his purpose is and where his priorities lie.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
27 Aug 2026
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“Don't go to class," Will croaks out. The words haven't even been thought before they're being spoken. He has no idea where this is coming from.
Mike's face stills in confusion. "What?"
"I'm sorry if I'm wrong. Just don't go."
"Why? Will, did you see something?"
"I—I don't know," Will says, dragging his hand down his face. It's like there's images flashing right out of his field of vision, but they're too far to make any sense of. "Get back on the train, Mike. Please. I'll meet you at home.”
In the midst of trying to get over him, Will is plagued with visions of events that will lead to Mike's death if he doesn't prevent them from unfolding. It's a good thing Mike will do anything Will asks of him.
Meanwhile, somewhere in between escaping his own death and solving the mystery of what exactly is out to get him in the big city, Mike realizes the true depth of his love for his best friend.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
22 Aug 2026
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“I want you to take a close look, because if you try to leave. I will mount Mike’s head right here in place of this deer.” Vecna points to the mounted head in the middle of the room.
Will’s whole body is trembling.
Vecna stares at him longer than is polite or comfortable. He nods, satisfied with Will’s response, then breaks back out into an arrogant smile.
“Let me show you your new home.” Vecna croons as he pulls on Will's arm.
Or Part 3 of my series Endless Circles
Where Will gets his powers mid-season 3 and it changes everythingSeries
- Part 3 of Endless Circles - Series
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 161,683
- Chapters:
- 81/?
- Comments:
- 748
- Kudos:
- 1,001
- Bookmarks:
- 113
- Hits:
- 37,731
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
22 Aug 2026
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Mike Wheeler’s Journey to Himself (and Will Byers’ Heart) by purpledisaster
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
21 Aug 2026
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Mike Wheeler hates his life. Luckily for him, none of it is real.
In reality, he’s possessed by Vecna, who has trapped his mind inside a dream and refuses to let him go without a fight - while Mike’s friends are left to face Vecna on the outside.
Mike realizes the only way out is through a maze of his own memories, where every path leads, for some reason, back to Will. And when Mike makes Vecna angry by carving out his own paths, even the memories begin to rot into nightmares.
There’s only one thing Vecna can’t fully silence. Will’s voice, leaking through the cracks of the mind prison.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
21 Aug 2026
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At once, all of the pieces come together, and Mike isn’t sure he likes the shape they take. It’s like someone has taken a ball of red string into his brain and begun connecting years of memories he has worked so hard to ignore.
The painting. The red string reaches for another memory: El’s letter from that spring. All the shared looks that were meant only for the two of them. That day in the rain. Each shoulder bump. Every unnecessary brush of the knee.
Crimson yarn stretches into the recesses of his mind: The way Mike would always sit just a touch too close. The way Will would always let him. How lost Mike felt the year Will was in California. How he could never find the right words to say. The weird feeling Mike got in his chest when he saw Will at the airport, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. The worst week of his life, back in 83’. "If we both go crazy, at least we’ll go crazy together, right?"
The string loops back around and grabs one final piece of the puzzle: Tammy motherfucking Thompson.
or:
Mike’s junior year begins with an avalanche. This is what follows.
Series
- Part 1 of tough luck universe
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
14 Aug 2026
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Summary
When Mike realizes he's dying from the Hanahaki disease, he decides on a number of things:
1. don't tell Will
2. don't tell Will
3. spend the last days of his life with Will.He may be dying, but with Will, he's never felt more alive.
OR
The fic where Mike realizes it's always been Will, and that one thing that drives him to this realization is the threat of never seeing Will again. If he only didn't believe Will's speech about him being Will's Tammy.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
13 Aug 2026
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Will used to know how to create things. Now, at thirty-three, everything feels stuck.
His studio hasn’t been touched in years. His body no longer follows the timelines it once promised. The life he spent a decade building ended in a way he still doesn’t quite know how to recover from.
He tells himself he has time. It doesn’t feel true—but it’s easier than thinking the alternative.
He doesn’t expect anything to change. He definitely doesn’t expect someone to walk into his life and change it.
Especially not someone younger— someone who looks at him with something dangerously close to adoration.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 108,998
- Chapters:
- 10/21
- Comments:
- 530
- Kudos:
- 733
- Bookmarks:
- 194
- Hits:
- 23,249
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
12 Aug 2026
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Letters Without a Name and Portraits Without a Face by CraZ2gether
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
06 Aug 2026
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Will Byers has been suffering, lying, crying. He’s got a boyfriend that looks a little too much like someone from back home, and both of them have been keeping secrets.
Mike Wheeler has been suffering, drowning, thriving. He’s found himself a new friend that kind of looks like him on his trip to New York. And he might be a little too interested in Mike.
Series
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
06 Aug 2026
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A year and a half after the Mind Flayer possessed Will, things are about as normal as they can be. The Party just completed their freshman year, the summer is upon them, and Mike’s nightmares are only happening once every few weeks now.
Things are, in all honesty, starting to look up for them.
But when the Mind Flayer comes back with a new plan to take over Hawkins, they’re thrown back into the world of the Upside Down.
Mike finds himself growing more desperate to keep Will safe with every new threat until his own morals start to slip away.
☆☆☆
Season 3-5 rewrite with no Vecna, no Russians, and no California. A darker take on the story with a focus on continuing the Miwi dynamic into the later seasons.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
04 Aug 2026
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Will Byers lives a quiet, solitary life as a children's book illustrator, helping bring other people's stories to life—fixing lonely trees, drawing impossible worlds, and leaving pieces of himself on pages no one will ever know he touched.
Then, one cold night, he finds a stranger collapsed outside his apartment building. A young man who can't speak, pale, exhausted, and little more than skin and bones.
Will only means to offer him a warm place to sleep. A meal. A shower. A few days to recover.
He doesn't expect Mike to stay. He doesn't expect to learn how to understand him without words. And he certainly doesn't expect the silent stranger in his home to become part of the story Will has been trying to remember his entire life.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 130,743
- Chapters:
- 12/12
- Comments:
- 1,016
- Kudos:
- 1,070
- Bookmarks:
- 272
- Hits:
- 21,818
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
30 Jul 2026
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Will’s eyes were blank, unseeing.
Mike blinked and was thrown back eleven years. His nose stung with memory of the damp, sour-sweet rot that had haunted Hawkins the year the tunnels vivisected the town.
It’s been eight years since the final battle, and everyone is back in town for Steve’s wedding.
The Upside Down is gone, Vecna is dead, and Will keeps waking up in the woods.Bookmarked by darkXwolf
28 Jul 2026
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What We Hold On To (This Time, On Purpose) by druzyquartztheory
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
10 Sep 2026
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Summary
Vecna is dead and gone and never coming back... So what happens after surviving?
*All stories in the series are directly related, a continuation of the last, in order as they go.
Series
- Part 6 of What We Hold Onto
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
28 Jul 2026
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Summary
Another vine snakes into Mike’s hair and wrenches his head back toward the drop. His neck strains in protest as he’s forced to look down. The height yawns below him; a vertical mile of nothing. But when his vision clears, something is standing over him, and it’s wearing Will’s face.
Time stamp; Stranger Things Season 5, Episode 8 (The Rightside Up, canon divergent.)
Author's Note: This is the sequel to “to the tempo of your uptight”. Highly recommended to read part 1 & 2 first. Cannot be read as a standalone. (Part 3 of 3 of a ST-S5 Rewrite, Mike Wheeler POV)
Series
- Part 3 of don't you?
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
27 Jul 2026
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Summary
As Hopper moves in to the Byers' house, Will slowly loses his voice. Mike helps Will without a second thought and in the process, comes to understand the true meaning of home.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
23 Jul 2026
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“The… game you guys were joking about. Where I, you know, talk to girls. In the form of a bet.”
“Oh! Right, right. I remember now,” Max says, her smile only growing. “What about it?”
“I want to…” Mike licks his lips, contemplating his next words, “do it. For real.”
It’s the summer of 1989 when Mike Wheeler decides that he’s in desperate need of a new direction, or at the very least, a job. But he never thought it would involve slinging ice cream at the revamped Scoops Ahoy with his most annoying friend, Max Mayfield.
Mike spends his summer in the most ridiculous uniform he’s ever seen, while the Indiana heat and some stupid bet slowly unfurls all the things he’s been desperately trying to hide from; the biggest one of them being Will Byers.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
21 Jul 2026
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Between the bookshelves and the trembling thighs by Susuwatariii
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
22 Aug 2026
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Mike Wheeler lives in New York City and dreams of becoming a writer. But the only publishing house willing to hire him has a condition: he must interview the unapproachable senior curator at the New York Public Library. Pushing open a door marked "Staff Only", he finds Will Byers, his childhood friend whom he hasn't seen in five years, standing behind it. Now they are separated by years of silence, shelves full of books, and a table perfect for... interviews.
Bookmarked by darkXwolf
20 Jul 2026