12 Bookmarks by busyheadbandito
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“Huh,” Mike says.
Huh.
Kissing your friends. For practice.
He’s just never considered it before, is all. He didn't know something like that was allowed.
And yes, Max said it's a thing girls do sometimes, but maybe—
Maybe two friends who just also happen to be boys—
Two best friends—
It's the Party's final summer together before college, and Mike Wheeler is prepared for exactly nothing to change.
Throw in a nursing home nemesis, a grandmother's deified childhood pet, and an escalating series of 'practice' sexual encounters with a best friend who makes his head spin, and there's a very tiny chance he may be getting in over his head.
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
28 Apr 2026
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If you asked anyone in Will's life they'd say he's moved on, and technically it is true — he's found new friends, had (and loved) a few boyfriends, done things his younger self wouldn't even think possible. Still, it wouldn't be entirely accurate, because that's not how Will sees it: moving on is a "directional" term, it implies the existence of a straight line connecting point A (the past) to point B (the future) that everyone must walk, regardless of what, or who, is left behind.
And this is something Will simply can't accept.
He has learned to live without El because he had to, but that doesn't mean he's moved on from her. Nor that he wants to.
He has learned to live without Mike too. But moving on? Na-ah.
OR
After years of miscommunication and regrets, in the late 90s Mike and Will lose touch for good.
One night in 2002 Karen Wheeler calls Will at his Montauk home and tells him that her son has just tried to kill himself.
And that, apparently, Mike still needs himBookmarked by busyheadbandito
22 Apr 2026
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James is not interesting to Victoria, that she has made clear, but Victoria is very interesting to James.
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
27 Mar 2026
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"I have Ms. Kelly today," Max says, almost bitterly. "You'll be okay at lunch without me?" she says it sarcastically, like a joke, but there's an undercurrent of something else in her voice; for a moment, she almost sounds scared.
Will releases her hand, even as they walk out of the gym doors together. "Works out for me," he tells her, "I have that project for art I have to finish up anyways." He pauses, hesitates. "Will you be okay without me?"
Max takes a breath, and then gives him a shaky smile, one that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "I'll have your tape," she says, wiggling the wires of her headphones. "See you after school."
~~
or: a shared tragedy brings max and will together for their first year of high school in hawkins. they stay together, even as their demons rise again. a s4 rewrite, in which joyce is the one who dies at the end of s3 and thus the byers + el never move.
Series
- Part 1 of breaking out
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 77,057
- Chapters:
- 9/9
- Comments:
- 256
- Kudos:
- 1,459
- Bookmarks:
- 436
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- 35,525
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
25 Mar 2026
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Victoria Javadi has spent three months building a very thorough mental list of reasons to hate James Ogilvie.
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
22 Mar 2026
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Things aren't getting any easier for Mike Wheeler. The shared dream of living together with his best friend Will Byers is a reality, only it winds up to be a home, a cage, and everything in between. It’s a home when their front door shuts and it’s only him and his favorite boy behind it, and it’s a cage when Mike can’t run away from his deepening feelings.
OR
Mike sees Will wear eyeliner for the first time, and that may be when he falls in love with his best friend. One drunken encounter between the two stirs up blends of jealousy and tension until one helplessly snaps.
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
12 Feb 2026
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On the day Will Byers should board a plane to New York, Vecna pulls him backward through time. His eighteen-year-old consciousness wakes in his twelve-year-old body, one week before the Demogorgon takes him into the Upside Down. Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Will finds himself trapped in 1989, disoriented and alone at an airport, calling the one person who still answers: Mike Wheeler.
Two versions of Will exist across six years of distance. One carries memories of everything they survived: monsters, sacrifices, El's death, and words left unspoken between him and Mike. The other knows nothing of the horrors ahead or why his best friend sounds so heartbroken on the phone.
Armed with the knowledge of every tragedy to come, older Will faces an impossible choice. He could save them all, and rewrite everything. The clock ticks toward November 6th, and Will must decide what matters more: the lives he could save or the truth he never had the courage to speak.
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
15 Jan 2026
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“I love you, Mike,” his mom said, softly. Earnestly.
Mike didn’t reply, couldn’t, and squeezed his eyes shut when he heard the door close. Something un-nameable was building in his throat, choking him. Something about 'Will' and 'family' and that word, the big one, the one he couldn’t say and never had. And the thing in his throat wasn’t un-nameable. Mike knew what it was. Terror. Shame.
"Maybe we’re both brave," Mike had told Will, only moments ago. Maybe.
Just not about this one, big thing.
OR: it has been a year since the Byers began living with him, and Mike Wheeler is in over his head. After being haunted by a string of nightmares, Mike takes comfort in Will, as he always does. This results in shared rooms, wound-tending and revealed secrets, which set the two on a dangerous but inescapable path towards the most important revelation of them all.
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
20 Dec 2025
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“Mike?” Will calls gently, his voice always the softest when saying his name.
Mike hums in response, a mindless mumble where his cheek is pressed against Will’s chest, all sleepy and warm and safe. Mike never wants to leave his embrace. Now that he has this, he never wants to live without it. “Yeah?”
“What are you doing?”
It’s a bucket of water that washes over him the second those words leave Will’s mouth—cold, icy water—paralyzing Mike down to the bone.
When he looks up, Will is staring down at him like he’s confused now, like he really doesn’t understand Mike so well, after all. And Will never says anything maliciously, but those four words feel like four gunshots straight to Mike’s chest. He’s not able to pull away from Will any faster, before that rotten feeling can consume him completely.
“What?”
“It’s just… It’s not normal, the way we act, is it?”
(Or: the post-season 5 vol 1 visionary board where we actually see what the hell Mike Wheeler is thinking and I psychologically bully him for sport.)- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 44,915
- Chapters:
- 3/?
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 13
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- 128
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- 28
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Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
19 Dec 2025
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Mike thinks back to the painting Will gave him, rolled up and placed carefully in his dresser drawer, because for some reason it felt too wrong to hang it up on the walls with everything else. Too intimate. Like Will had made it for his eyes only. Or, apparently as everyone else thought, some mystery lover in California. And then he thinks about Will dozing off on his bed, and saying I think I’m in love with you all soft and slowed down from the inertia of sleep, and that’s right about when Mike starts to feel seriously lightheaded. He leans back against his bed and focuses very hard on taking deep, even breaths.
Mike contemplates his feelings for Will Byers, partakes in a concerning amount of swooning, and learns to drive. Sort of.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 21,472
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 169
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- 4,419
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Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
12 Sep 2025
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(No explicit content)
In 1989, Mike Wheeler heads to college, but instead of finding freedom, he’s consumed by loneliness and depression. Turning to alcohol and reckless behavior, he struggles to cope with the fear of his sexuality. In desperate attempt to prove himself, Mike is wreck less and careless. Weeks later when a girl named Ashley shows up with a positive pregnancy test, claiming he’s the father of her child, Mike’s world is shattered. After the birth Ashley disappears, he’s left alone to care for the baby, barely scraping by, struggling to afford food and balance overwhelming responsibilities. With his mental health crumbling, Mike doesn’t know how much longer he can keep going.Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
10 Jul 2025
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When Hermione agrees to act as Draco's date for the annual Malfoy gala, she thinks it might be the worst decision she's ever made. But sometimes in just one night, everything can change.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 8,745
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 3
- Comments:
- 121
- Kudos:
- 3,514
- Bookmarks:
- 577
- Hits:
- 59,133
Bookmarked by busyheadbandito
06 Apr 2025