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1. by the time you got here (i thought i'd lost you) by courtn3zzy

   Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)  

   • Not Rated
   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • M/M
   • Complete Work

   08 Jan 2026

   Tags

   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
   • Mike Wheeler
   • Will Byers
   • Karen Wheeler
   • Ted Wheeler (Stranger Things)
   • Eleven | Jane Hopper
   • Jonathan Byers
   • Nancy Wheeler
   • Angst with a Happy Ending
   • Friends to Lovers
   • Internalized Homophobia
   • Mutual Pining
   • Emotional Hurt
   • First Kiss
   • Post-Season/Series Finale
   • Angst
   • Conflict
   • Period-Typical Homophobia
   • POV Will Byers
   • POV Mike Wheeler

   Summary

   Twenty years after graduation, Mike Wheeler is still living in the past. Haunted.

   He writes novels no one reads and drinks like he's trying to forget something that never leaves him.
   The party drifted apart a couple years prior, they still visit, rarely.

   Will has moved on, or tried to anyways.
   Both living in NYC, only a couple blocks away but never meeting.

   Until one day, they meet.

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   6,536

   Chapters:

   3/3

   Comments:

   3

   Kudos:

   20

   Bookmarks:

   5

   Hits:

   242