13 Bookmarks by stripeyshirt
List of Bookmarks
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will byers’ guide to advanced concepts in painting by falloutboi
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
27 Dec 2025
Tags
Summary
Dustin hums in agreement while he swallows his bite. “It’s like, against his factory settings to say no to you. What do you need him to do, model for you or something?”
Will shoves his face back into his hands. “I’m going to fail.”
Max rolls her eyes. “You’re not going to fail, you’re going to paint Mike.”
Will lifts his head up from his hands, eyes wide, and shakes his head. “You don’t understand.” He pleads with his awful, awful friends, voice low. “He’s been, he’s using my-he came out of my bathroom in just a towel last night.”
Studio art major Will Byers has a study of the human body due before the semester ends, is in desperate need for a model, and has a huge, life-altering, heart wrenching crush on his best friend.
Enter: Mike Wheeler, his broken shower, and his collection of plaid-print boxers.
Series
- Part 1 of devotion | Indiana University
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Summary
My skin is clean, Will tells himself, staring down his reflection as if it’s challenging him. I’m not possessed, I’m not in the Upside Down.
I’m a second-year student at the Art Institute of Chicago. My apartment is shitty and tiny and expensive and incredible. Will stabilizes himself by gripping the countertop, looping the words through his mind. Mike is in the other room, waiting for me. He’s an English major at Loyola, and his dad has no idea how he’ll land a job. He’s waiting for me. He loves me. He’s patient with me, and he understands. My brother lives in New York, and my mom’s safe at home in Indiana. My skin is clean, and all of this is real.
I disappeared seven years ago today, and I was found.
And he’s dead, and far away from me. He can’t touch me ever again.
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
22 Feb 2026
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Summary
“Wait,” Lucas takes another glance at Will, specifically at the sweater he’s wearing. “Is that Mike’s?”
Here’s the other thing about the last eight or so months of Will Byers’ life: he’s been spending his nights, on and off, secretly, semi-occasionally, very frequently, kissing Mike Wheeler.
He’s confused about it too, don’t even worry.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 26,172
- Chapters:
- 3/3
- Comments:
- 608
- Kudos:
- 14,627
- Bookmarks:
- 2,723
- Hits:
- 149,770
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
22 Feb 2026
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Summary
Looking at them all, he relises this is the most at home he’s felt in a long time. Catching up with Joyce, telling her how his family has been— asking Jonathan how college is going. Even cracking jokes with El, it all comes easy.
When he looks at Will, though— laughing radiantly from across the table and smiling over at Mike before looking back down to his food, almost as if he’s shy— he feels different.
For some completely unfathomable reason, he gets the overwhelming desire to kiss him.
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
22 Feb 2026
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I just need a quiet place, where I can scream how I love you by Aloyx
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
09 Jan 2026
Tags
Summary
With the Byers temporarily living under the Wheelers' roof, Mike and Will are forced into a proximity they’ve been desperately trying to avoid, after both getting sick. Between shared blankets and hazy fever dreams, the lines they’ve drawn between friendship and something more begin to blur, forcing them to confront a reality neither is ready to name.
Or
Mike and Will are in love with each other, but they're too scared to admit it, so it takes a delirious fever for them to finally stop lying to themselves, with childhood memories and an angry confession in the rain.
"He realized, with a terrifying clarity, that he would trade every bit of safety and normalcy for just one more second of Mike Wheeler looking at him like he was the only thing that mattered in the world."
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 28,734
- Chapters:
- 10/10
- Comments:
- 242
- Kudos:
- 1,963
- Bookmarks:
- 370
- Hits:
- 26,556
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
14 Feb 2026
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Summary
“Mike?” She tries again, her throat bubbling. She hates this. She hates not knowing how to fix things.
More heavy breathing blows through the receiver.A shaky sob.
And a response.
“I’m gay.”
A scared weep rattles into her ear and Nancy’s chest squeezes.
Fuck.
or
In the middle of the night, Mike comes out to Nancy over the phone.
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
12 Feb 2026
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You Burn Inside My Memory So Well (You're Caramel) by Hevaann
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
25 Dec 2025
Tags
Summary
“Look,” Will says, turning fully on the pallet to face Mike, one hand reaching down for the rough wood to find purchase and ground him. “Do you-, do you want to show me. Like-, like want to practice?”
Mike’s eyes widen but he doesn't say anything.
“Sorry, stupid idea, just wanted to help.” Will is trying to gather the words back up from the air between them and into his mouth.
“I never thought it was stupid.” Mike says, so quietly it's not much more than an exhale. “I suggested it first.” He adds, like it's a secret.
Will grips the pallet harder. “Show me. I really do want to help.”
Mike bites his lip a sec, and Will thinks he's going to say no, but then Mike's darting forward and pressing his lips firm and quick against Will’s. It's barely a kiss. Not romantic. Not enough to leave a scar. Will bleeds anyway.
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Or: Mike has been kissing Will on and off since they were seven. How are you supposed to recognise an avalanche when you are drowning in snowballs?
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
11 Feb 2026
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I’m in love with you, do you think it shows? by Anonymous
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
13 Apr 2026
Tags
Summary
An accident leaves Mike without four years of memories. He wakes up convinced that it's 1989, that Bush is the new President, and that his time at college in Boston has only just begun.
But it's 1994. There's a new President. He lives in New York.
And somehow, he shares an apartment with Will Byers.
Or: An Amnesia AU.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 73,201
- Chapters:
- 11/14
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 806
- Kudos:
- 1,651
- Bookmarks:
- 421
- Hits:
- 34,055
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
10 Feb 2026
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this loving feeling (it wears us out) by Girl_rotting
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
28 Feb 2026
Tags
Summary
“Why? Why won’t you ever tell me what’s wrong with you?” Carlton’s voice is filled with frustration, and it sounds like nails on a chalkboard to Will.
What is wrong with him. It’s such a loaded question. Why does Will wake up screaming sometimes? Why can’t Will handle the cold? Why are there days when Carlton’s hands on him feel like being kept under water with no way up?
And why can’t Will tell Carlton the truth? How could Will possibly explain it without sounding insane? What is the human translation for being taken and kept in another dimension, violated, and possessed, only to then be violated yet again—
This part of him is something Will is never going to be able to share with anyone else. That nobody would understand.
Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong with you.
“Because you wouldn’t get it.” Will somehow manages to say it without gagging.
And then, Carlton goes in for the kill.
“Oh, but Mike does?”
OR
After leaving Hawkins to go to college in the great city of San Franscisco, Will finally finds someone who loves him. The only problem is that the only person in the world who knows him, is someone else.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 88,861
- Chapters:
- 12/20
- Comments:
- 3,109
- Kudos:
- 8,239
- Bookmarks:
- 1,795
- Hits:
- 216,318
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
09 Feb 2026
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Summary
This is the story about how Mike and Will fell in love. It focuses on their early years, all taking place before season 1, and they're all canon compliant. The stories are standalones, so you can read whatever one you want to, or you read them in chronological (release) order
- Words:
- 42,695
- Works:
- 7
- Bookmarks:
- 32
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
09 Feb 2026
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Tags
Summary
In the summer of 1989, Will has two goals. Technically three.
- Find a job.
- Save up for college. See aforementioned goal #1.
- Get over Mike Wheeler.
It’s going badly.
Or: The summer after graduation, Will learns how to move on, and Mike learns how to live with change.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 42,390
- Chapters:
- 3/?
- Comments:
- 455
- Kudos:
- 1,317
- Bookmarks:
- 506
- Hits:
- 30,336
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
09 Feb 2026
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the longer burn, the sweeter that you smell by aviannabuckley
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
11 Nov 2025
Tags
Summary
The words Spiderman said surprised even him, but Will didn’t laugh or brush them aside. He just sat there, sketchbook resting loosely on his knees, eyes fixed on the glow of the skyline as if listening in awe. “You really have a way with words, huh? Reminds me of someone.”
When distance grows between him and Will, Mike finds a new way to be near him, even if it's from behind a mask.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 27,765
- Chapters:
- 9/9
- Comments:
- 160
- Kudos:
- 1,500
- Bookmarks:
- 366
- Hits:
- 22,912
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
07 Feb 2026
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a cruel summer with you by andiwriteordie, astrobi, wiseatom
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
15 Mar 2026
Tags
Summary
“Oh, come on,” Will says, struggling to keep his voice neutral in a different way. His mouth is dry, and he hates Mike for it even more. “Is this what it’s going to be like this summer?”
Mike looks back at him, considering, lips pursed in an effort to shut down the smirk that Will knows is fighting to break free. Will doesn’t dare to let his gaze catch there, focusing instead on holding Mike’s stare, because this, too, is a game.
Five years into a rivalry with bittersweet origins, the only thing Mike and Will want is to beat each other at this summer’s camp counselor competition. But being back at camp is dredging up old memories, and as Mike and Will lose momentum and gain something else entirely, it becomes increasingly clear that one summer can change everything.
Series
- Part 5 of in the quiet of the night
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 371,633
- Chapters:
- 13/17
- Comments:
- 1,380
- Kudos:
- 9,346
- Bookmarks:
- 2,528
- Hits:
- 456,134
Bookmarked by stripeyshirt
07 Feb 2026