3 Works by astrarden
Listing Works
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nothing will keep us together (but my pictures of you) by astrarden
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
30 Mar 2026
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Summary
The screen flickers once. He scrolls past DUSTIN, who still insists on being listed under his full name like they’re not pushing thirty, past LUCAS MAX HOME, past NANCY, past MOM NEW. He hadn’t bothered changing that one either.
WILL (LA)
He stares at the name. The parentheses. The distance barked right into it. He added that after college, after Will moved west and Mike stayed put, it became important, apparently, to specify where Will was in relation to him. As if he could ever forget.
OR: It's 1996 and Mike is depressed and bisexual (not that he knows) and alone, and also is an accountant. But it's New York. And everyone's unhappy in New York. That's what New York is!!!! And for all the times Mike said he didn't want to end up like his father, he unfortunately has in this. Sorry to that man. But also probably canon too.
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Summary
Will has felt this before. He’s felt it in basements and bike rides and hospital rooms. In late nights and shared looks and the way Mike always seemed to turn toward him, even when he didn’t mean to. He’d named it a long time ago, quietly, carefully, like you label a box you don’t plan to open. It fed everything else. The hope he’d already strangled. The recognition he’d buried. The longing. The wanting. The terrible, stupid belief that some things could be mutual without being spoken. That you could be seen without asking for it. That someone could know you and still stay. Understanding.
Maybe if he killed this one, the rest would finally starve.
or the finale rewritten because what the actual absolute fuck was that.
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i have become comfortably numb (this is not how i am) by astrarden
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
16 Jan 2026
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Summary
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.