1 - 20 of 184 Bookmarks by exuberant_reader
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Will is having nightmares. Mike is having desires he doesn’t understand.
— or —
Mike felt something warm bloom in his chest. Will looked so soft, so peaceful, hair ruffled, lips parted gently against the fabric of Mike’s shirt, breathing slow but deep. He couldn’t help the swell of pride that rose inside him—pride because Will felt safe enough to fall asleep pressed against him, trusting him entirely.
And yet, a bitter ache threaded through that warmth.
Is Carlton as gentle with him?
Does Will fall asleep in his arms?
Does he feel safe like this with him?
Is he patient with him when he’s drunk, when he’s trembling and cold?
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Mike and will drunkenly sleep together after Stacy’s party.
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He’d thought he was over Mike. He’d told himself he was. He’d accepted that Mike would never feel the same way. Mike wasn’t like him. Untouchable. Unavailable. A dead end. He’d made peace with that over 18 months ago when the world was ending.
But now Mike was here. And he was touching him. Looking at him like this. Like he wanted him.
And Will was too drunk, too raw, too undone to shove the feelings back down where they belonged.
———
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Will lets Mike put handcuffs on him while he blows him.. that’s lowkey it.
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When the Wheeler family invites the Byers over for dinner one night, Mike just can’t stop looking at Will.
or
Will swallowed. “Our families are literally in the next room,” he murmured. “Are you insane?”
“Please, Will. Look at you,” Mike breathed, pressing his forehead to Will’s neck. “In that shirt. You look—” He swallowed hard. “You look so handsome.”
Series
- Part 4 of Byler 2000s AU (mostly oneshots)
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
24 Feb 2026
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“Did he touch you?” Mike asked.
Will blinked, caught. “Mike--"
Mike stepped closer anyway, crowding him until Will’s back brushed the door. His hand landed at Will’s shoulder, thumb pressing into the flesh above his collarbone.
“Did you let him see them?” Mike added, quieter. Meaner. “The panties.”
Will’s breath stuttered.
OR
Mike finds a pair of panties in Will's laundry and slowly spirals.
Will doesn't seem to mind, though.
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The Heart Finally Stops Running And Calls It Salvation by Depressed_Anon
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
02 Jan 2026
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Summary
He wanted to say a hundred things. ‘You look good.’ ‘I’ve missed you.’ ‘I hate myself for making it weird.’ ‘You look so fucking good.’ ‘Did you ever--’
His brain supplied the rest, cruel and automatic; ‘Did you ever love me like I thought you did? Did you ever want me like I didn’t know how to want you?’
Instead, because Mike was Mike, he said, “Your tie--”
Will blinked. “What about it?”
Mike pointed, stupidly, at Will’s collar like it was an emergency. “It’s… not… there.”
Will stared at him for a beat, then snorted. “Yeah. Because I’m not wearing one yet.”
Mike felt heat crawl up his neck. “Right.”
Will’s mouth twitched. “Are you nervous?”
“No.” Mike lied.
-------------------------------------------------
Lucas and Max are getting married, and Mike finally grows some balls.
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It's always the rain. In his nightmares, there are no monsters or alternate dimensions, just the wet sound of tires on asphalt and a bicycle abandoned on the shoulder of Highway 22.
Seven years have passed since Will Byers disappeared into thin air. Seven years in which Mike Wheeler has tried to convince himself that he's a functional adult, that he's moved on, that the sleeping pills are just for university stress.
But the body doesn't forget what the mind tries to erase. And when a call in the middle of the night brings a ghost back home, Mike will discover that getting back what you lost doesn't mean it stops hurting.
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Mike wasn’t coming after him this time. This whole thing was Mike’s fault in the first place, and Will didn’t want to see him, he made that clear. He did want Mike to notice, though. He wanted Mike to be standing inside the arcade, staring at the front door, itching to come outside and talk to him. He wanted Mike to get a shit score at Dig Dug because he was distracted wondering where Will had gone.
It was kind of like the View-Master feeling, being stuck between resenting Mike so much and wanting him back so desperately. Sometimes, there would be a glitch, and the facade he carefully constructed would disappear, revealing the cold, harsh truth. I still love him.
or: byler exes to lovers
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
14 Feb 2026
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Will’s eyes are still fixed on the broken bulb. Mike senses his apprehension, and he pokes a finger to Will’s cheek. “Come on,” he drones, turning Will’s head to face him, “it’s cute!”
“It’s embarrassing,” Will groans, head plunging to Mike’s shoulder.
And — okay. Maybe it’s a little embarrassing, sure, having to explain to the Melvald’s guy why he needs a new light bulb every two and a half weeks, but Will Byers, Mike’s boyfriend — Mike’s boyfriend! — has superpowers, and that's a marvel in and of itself.
Mike never thought that dating Will Byers would result in this many blown fuses.
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By all measures, Mike is a good alpha. He checks all the boxes, really. Protective without being overbearing, quick to step in when someone’s in trouble, careful but not patronizing. He’s loud and boisterous, sure, but he’s also earnest, and sweet, and so goddamn chivalrous it’s stupid.
It’s all so horribly infuriating, and so infuriatingly endearing.
That’s the thing about instincts. They make everything so confusing. Will knows, rationally, that all of these things are just Mike’s way of being a good friend and packmate. And yet, there’s still a part of him—a decidedly omega part—that relishes in the attention in a way he knows he shouldn’t.
Navigating teenage relationships is hard enough. It's even harder when instincts get involved.
Series
- Part 1 of all roads lead to omega will byers
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
07 Feb 2026
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It’s seriously hot in here. Will shifts on the carpet, his stomach rolling. It feels like his skin is welting from the heat. He blinks hard, fruitlessly trying to slow the rapid rise and fall of his chest.
“Will?” Lucas calls, sounding far away.
Across the room, there’s a clamor, and then an understanding, “Oh, fuck.”
Everyone seems to realize the same thing at once, himself included. He’s going into heat. He’s going into heat in the middle of Mike’s basement, with everyone watching.
It's the summer of 1985, and everything in Will's life is already falling apart. So, of course, puberty just has to go and make it all worse.
Series
- Part 2 of all roads lead to omega will byers
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
07 Feb 2026
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Summary
Mike’s mouth is warm.
Warm, and a little chapped, and pressing against his with an uncertainty that makes something in Will’s chest ache. He should pull away. He knows this. He knows it in the same way he knows not to touch a hot stove, not to stare too long, not to let himself imagine impossible things. His body seems uninterested in logic, though, and he supposes he can’t blame himself, not really.
Mike shifts slightly, trying to figure out what to do with his limbs. His lips move against Will’s with more intention, and Will’s breath stutters out of him in a way that is deeply embarrassing and entirely involuntary.
Oh, his brain supplies unhelpfully.
It’s something he’s imagined countless times before, kissing Mike Wheeler. He imagines it so often, in fact, that he cannot even recall the first time he imagined it. It’s an ever-present fantasy, always lurking in the back of his mind.
And yet, despite his thorough experience in imagining this moment, he somehow never imagined it quite like this.
Or: Five times it doesn't mean anything, and one time it finally does.
Series
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
07 Feb 2026
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“You make this place feel alive, you know,” Henry says one morning, passing Will a clean glass. The compliment settles warmly in his chest, purring like a cat.
Their days become a predictable thing, but Will can’t help but find the predictability comforting. Time starts to blur around the edges, and the days don’t end so much as they… loop. Meals repeat. The light that streams in through the windows always looks like late afternoon, warm and yellow. Eventually, he stops checking the clock. Nothing changes when he does, and he has nowhere to be, anyway. Nothing pressing. No reason to rush. All he has is right here, warm and solid against his back.
Trapped inside a carefully constructed reality, Henry offers Will a life he knows he could never have in the outside world. As fragments of the apocalypse his friends are fighting begin to bleed through the facade, however, Will is forced to confront what exactly Henry is keeping him from, and all it's costing him to stay.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 10,000
- Chapters:
- 2/10
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 49
- Kudos:
- 206
- Bookmarks:
- 54
- Hits:
- 3,078
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
06 Feb 2026
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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:
- 165
- Kudos:
- 4,306
- Bookmarks:
- 965
- Hits:
- 44,110
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
04 Feb 2026
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Summary
Both of their bodies shake as they catch their breath. Will’s still hard, and his sweat is starting to dry uncomfortably on his skin, but all he can focus on is Mike.
It’s times like these he’s reminded how lucky he is to have Mike in this way. To see this side of him, this side that still feels too new and too intimate and too overwhelming all at once. Sometimes, he thinks he may be bitter. Resentful of his lot in life, being so painfully in love with someone who will so obviously never feel the same way. On his bad days, he even thinks he might resent Mike.
Like this, though, he knows that could never be true. Not really. Sure, it hurts, only ever having Mike halfway, knowing his body but never his soul. Yes, it’s going to kill him when Mike inevitably finds someone new and runs off into the sunset, leaving him in the dust again.
But it’s Mike. He'll take whatever he can get.
When he and Mike end up in bed together after graduation, they fall into something dangerously easy. Or, at least, it would be easy, if it weren't the most painful thing Will's ever done.
Series
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we all have a hunger (tell me what you need) by papenathy
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
03 Jun 2025
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Summary
“Looks like I bit you.” Will tilts his head to get a better look. All Mike can do is stare at him. His fluffy hair at the front, clumped pieces at the back where he’d slid his fingers in a mere few minutes before. His pretty green eyes that look hazel or even brown in this light, the dark circles he gets when he drinks framing them like intricate paintings. A satisfied, bloody smile.
Mike isn’t satisfied. He swallows thickly, choking down the words 'don’t you want more?'
Or: Will dresses as a vampire for a college halloween party, but Mike thinks his costume isn’t bloody enough. Will lets him fix it. Mike goes into a crisis.
Series
- Part 1 of we all have a hunger
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 34,403
- Chapters:
- 3/3
- Comments:
- 1,294
- Kudos:
- 33,013
- Bookmarks:
- 7,241
- Hits:
- 508,749
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
01 Feb 2026
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Will moves back to an upright position, wiping his hair out of his eyes, head and shoulders peeking above the water. “Mike,” he says, pulling Mike up with him, their fingers still intertwined.
“Yeah?” Mike says, tilting his head so the water trickles out of his ears, wincing slightly. “What is it?”
Will’s eyes dart back and forth between his, and then Mike feels his hand squeeze his own. “I don’t want you to, like, think I moved back for you,” he starts, which in and of itself would be enough to get Mike’s soul soaring straight out of his own body, if it weren’t for Will’s thumb pressed against his pulse point like some kind of mortal tether. “Because it’s not like that, I promise. But I think– I think I realized there’s a difference between things you want and things you need, you know?”
mike wheeler on losing people and having them again, the difference between wanting and needing, and finally letting go.
ft. robin buckley, will byers, and the mortifying ordeal of working in the food service industry
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 36,943
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 175
- Kudos:
- 2,794
- Bookmarks:
- 853
- Hits:
- 38,102
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
31 Jan 2026
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"Carlton," Mike repeated, the word feeling like ash in his mouth.
"Yeah, Carlton," Dustin said, sounding genuinely surprised by Mike's tone. "I figured you’d be the first to know. I mean, you guys talk every night. I only heard it through the grapevine—Max told Lucas, Lucas told me. Even El seemed to know when I called her last. I thought you were probably the one who gave him the pep talk to actually go through with it."
Mike didn’t know. He didn't know anything. He’d talked to Will on Friday. He’d talked to Will today, just before calling Dustin. Will had mentioned the weather, his latest charcoal sketch, and the fact that Max had accidentally bleached one of his favorite sweaters. He had not mentioned a business major named Carlton.
The betrayal tasted like copper. He was the person Will usually told everything to first.
OR Mike Wheeler realizes that playing the "Good Best Friend" is a losing game, Will is tired of waiting for a sign, and the Party proves that they are world-class at covering up a tactical romantic explosion.
Basically: cheating Byler burger with a side of mutual pining fries and enabler friends soda.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 18,990
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 130
- Kudos:
- 1,628
- Bookmarks:
- 395
- Hits:
- 18,427
Bookmarked by exuberant_reader
26 Jan 2026
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In the midst of the frantic, rhythmic motion, a small shift in the air, pulled Will from the blinding focus of sensation. His head lolled back against the pillows, his eyes, hazy and dilated, snapping open.
That’s when he saw her. Vanessa. Standing in the sliver of the doorway.
He didn't gasp. He didn't stop Mike, didn't even slow the relentless, punishing rhythm. There was no room for surprise, not now, not after all this time. He just stared at her with the quiet, triumphant knowledge that had settled deep within him years ago. It was a look of profound, quiet acknowledgement—a confirmation of the ending he had always known was their inevitable destination.
In that gaze, Will was telling her that her story with Mike was over, that he had merely held the place for him until the time was right.
The problem with Mike Wheeler was not that he didn't know how to exist in halves, but that he refused to let Will Byers exist without him. In 1991, Will Byers is an art student at NYU, living for the 10:00 PM calls and the thick, ink-stained manuscripts Mike sends from Bloomington. He has resigned himself to being the moon to Mike’s sun.
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In the year of 1993, Mike Wheeler is invited to Los Angeles California for the holidays by his friends when they notice Mike struggling to deal with the terms of his divorce to Eleven and the manuscript he hasn't been able to write— in over a year.
There he sees Will again. Thriving in all senses in life, looking better than the day of his wedding. The last day he saw him. In the throes of missed phone calls, cigarettes and fire— he thinks that maybe, there is more to their story than what he led himself to believe.
That, or they are better off as just strangers.