thefutureisbright
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my love is no short year’s sentence by thefutureisbright
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
09 Feb 2026
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Summary
“Why?” Will asked again. “Why does my safety suddenly depend on what I may or may not have said to a lord’s apprentice in a garden?” Will’s hands came up to frame Mike’s face, eyes searching. “My champion, my sweetest love, who do you serve tonight?”
Horror flooded through Mike’s body. The title, once a private jest, a breath of warmth in the dark, now fell between them like a gauntlet. My champion. It was a reminder of every vow whispered against skin.
In that moment, the King’s command, the weight of the crown, the threat, and the promise, all of it crumbled to dust before the ruin in Will’s face. He could not do it. The dagger of his betrayal would not plunge. His will to complete the act extinguished, leaving only the residue of guilt.
Mike pulled him in and pressed his forehead hard against Will’s, his eyes squeezed shut, as if he could fuse them together if only he pressed hard enough, and escape the consequences of his own deceit. “You,” he murmured, the word raw and scraped against Will’s lips. He kissed him softly, a sealing of the lie. “Always you, my light. Forget I spoke.”
OR: Mike the Brave has a choice to make
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“Why do you laugh?” Mike the Brave asked. The question was utterly sincere. He could not fathom the source of the mockery, of why Mike would be laughing at his display of fealty.
Mike spluttered, his face flushing. “I—It’s just… you only got him a book off the shelf? That’s your big ‘honour to serve’ moment? It’s just… a book.” He gestured vaguely, defensively, at the book, embarrassed.
Will the Wise’s lips curved into a smile tinged with sorrow. He looked from the flustered boy to his own beloved protector, his hand reaching up to stroke his Paladin’s cheek.
“He has crossed realms for me,” Will the Wise said, his melodic voice filling the cottage. “He has faced beasts and shadows and the silence of the abyss. He would do anything for me, and I for him. The grand quests are written in songs and psalms, sung by revellers around fires and bards in the inn. But the story of us… it is written in these small things. In a fetched book, a mended cloak, a tender kiss in the dawn light.” He looked directly at the younger Mike, his gaze piercingly kind. “We like to remind each other of our affections. In every possible way. There is no deed too small to be an act of love.”
Series
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And I could be good (But Heaven closed the gates on me) by thefutureisbright
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
01 Feb 2026
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“I’m not okay,” Will choked out, the words torn messily from him. “And I don’t feel safe. And I don’t… I don’t want it to stop. The feeling. I don’t want it to stop, Mike.”
Mike’s eyes widened. In an instant, he reached out, not hesitating, and pulled Will inside, shutting the door against the world. The apartment was dim, lit only by a desk lamp.
“Hey,” Mike murmured, his hands coming up to cradle Will’s face, his thumbs brushing away the tears that had escaped. “Hey, it’s okay.”
“It’s not,” Will gasped, shaking his head, his hands coming up to clutch at Mike’s wrists. “It’s not. It’s terrifying. You’re terrifying.”
Mike’s breath caught. Instead of pulling back, he leaned closer, his forehead gently touching Will’s. “Then let me terrify you,” he whispered, his voice raw. “Because you terrify me, too. Every single day.”
The confession hung suspended between them. Will could feel the heat radiating from Mike’s skin, see the pulse jumping in his throat.
OR: the artist Will's and the poet Mike's who love them
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Will was weeping openly. “And the worst of it,” he whispered, his voice breaking as he forced up a fourth and final finger. He looked at it as if it were a silver-tipped weapon pointed at his own heart. “The very worst of it… is that I would be the author of it. I would be the hand that stops your heart. The mouth that poisons you. Every moment of suffering you ever felt thereafter — every pang of monstrous hunger, every flinch from a memory of sunlight, every tear you shed for the life you lost — would be born of my creation. I would have to look at you, forever, and see my greatest crime wearing your face, speaking with your voice. I cannot… I cannot bear that, Michael.”
He sank to his knees then, defeated. He knelt on the cold floorboards, naked and shivering, his face in his hands. “So don’t ask me,” he begged, his words muffled and wet. “However much you love me, however little you fear the dark… have mercy on me. Don’t ask me to damn you.”
OR: Mike moves into an old house in the early 1800s, and ends up accidentally living with Vampire Will. They fall in love.
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We Were Two and Had But One Heart by thefutureisbright
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
25 Jan 2026
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My attempt at chivalric romance/fantasy. Will the healer, Mike the Paladin.
Mike opened his eyes. They were clear now, bruiseless, and they were fixed on Will with an expression of pure, awestruck wonder. He didn’t move from his kneeling position on the floor, looking up at Will who was pressed against the wall, breathless and panicked.
Then, Mike moved. He didn’t stand, but leaned forward, his gaze never leaving Will’s. His hand, warm and calloused from battle, found Will’s where it lay clenched on the mattress.
“I will let nothing happen to you, William,” Mike vowed, “I swear to it.”
Before Will could process the words, the sound of his full name on Mike’s lips, Mike bowed his head. He pressed his lips to the back of Will’s knuckles in a kiss, a promise delivered directly to Will’s skin.Then, Mike was gone. He released Will’s hand, surged to his feet in one fluid motion, and slipped out the door, pulling it shut behind him with a soft, final click. The lock turned from the outside.
Series
Recent series
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A knight's truest sword is his vow to his beloved by thefutureisbright
Fandom Stranger Things (TV 2016)
09 Feb 2026
Summary
a collection of my cleradin fics
- Words:
- 34,853
- Works:
- 3
- Bookmarks:
- 4
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Summary
Goth Will, Punk Mike truther
- Words:
- 5,781
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 2
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- Words:
- 8,405
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 3
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All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players- Words:
- 35,119
- Works:
- 2
- Bookmarks:
- 3
Recent bookmarks
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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.)
Bookmarked by thefutureisbright
08 Feb 2026
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William got to his feet and turned around, prayer book clutched to his chest. Michael was standing in the center of the chapel, obviously just come from sparring practice. He was still wearing his dented cuirass, a leather pauldron on his right shoulder. The moonlight through the stained-glass windows painted him in blue and gold.
“Forgot to leave your armor behind in the gymnasium?” asked William lightly, skirting around him to set the prayer book back in its tabernacle.
“Something like that,” said Michael. He stepped out of the shaft of light, joining William at the perimeter of the circular room.
William closed the ornate wooden door of the tabernacle and turned to face him. “How did you know I’d be here?”
“I know you,” Michael said simply. I love you, he might as well have said, for the way it sent William’s heart skittering inside his chest.
Michael has been betrothed to the princess since their infancy. But it’s her brother he really wants.
Bookmarked by thefutureisbright
07 Feb 2026
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A polaroid lies face down, stark white against the carpet. Will crouches, breath already unsteady, and turns it over. His breath caught in his throat as the image came into focus, sending a jolt straight through him. Mike's jeans strained visibly against the thick bulge at his crotch, the denim stretched taut over an unmistakable erection.
Dear Will,
If you wanted to see me with a boner, you could've asked instead of drawing it.
Love, MikeOR
Will accidentally gifts Mike an erotic drawing of him, Mike returns the favor by sending him polaroid evidence of what his boners really look like.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 48,705
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Comments:
- 515
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- 4,155
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- 871
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Bookmarked by thefutureisbright
07 Feb 2026
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talk to me dirty; talk to me sweet by thesweetestdream
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
09 Feb 2026
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Summary
Will and Mike accidentally overhear a couple talking dirty over the walkie, and start repeating some of the filthy phrases to each other for shits and giggles. What starts as a joke, soon turns into something they can't stop doing – and can’t tell anyone about.
Or:
Mike and Will start talking dirty to each other for fun. What they don't consider is that it would accidentally turn them on.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 25,112
- Chapters:
- 6/?
- Comments:
- 1,939
- Kudos:
- 7,500
- Bookmarks:
- 1,676
- Hits:
- 80,069
Bookmarked by thefutureisbright
07 Feb 2026
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What Happened During the 18 Months Skip? Absolutely Nothing. (Narrator: Everything.) by abrxsjaeger (klmrnngstr)
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
01 Feb 2026
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Summary
Over the past few months, Mike had grown. Jesus, had he grown.
Taller. His shoulders had filled out. His jaw sharper now, more defined. His hands bigger too. God.
Will couldn’t stop noticing.
Couldn’t stop staring when no one was looking.
—
Or Will presented as an Omega. The only male Omega in Hawkins, Indiana.
This changes things.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 55,575
- Chapters:
- 2/?
- Comments:
- 255
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- 1,565
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- 392
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- 20,043
Bookmarked by thefutureisbright
06 Feb 2026