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1. I Won’t Miss Being Your Lover (I’m Still Losing a Friend) by love_kurdt

   Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)  

   • Mature
   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • M/M
   • Work in Progress

   17 Jul 2026

   Tags

   • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
   • Will Byers/Original Male Character(s)
   • Will Byers/Will Byers's Epilogue Boyfriend
   • Matt Winters
   • Will Byers
   • Hannah Reid
   • Pete Lynch
   • Ivy Baldwin
   • Erik Winters
   • Erik’s Parents
   • Selena (OC)
   • Mike Wheeler
   • Matt is Essentially the Epilogue Boyfriend
   • Minor Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
   • Flashbacks
   • Matt Winters Has OCD
   • Coffee Shops
   • Led Zeppelin References
   • Nirvana (Band) References
   • The Cure (Band) References
   • Title from a Conan Gray Song
   • Orthodox Judaism
   • Childhood Trauma
   • Josh Kiszka Has Something to Do With This
   • Original Character-centric
   • the entire cast of this fic is OCs but i promise it’ll be worth the read
   • Try before you deny

   Summary

   Fresh out of college with absolutely fucking demolished artistic ambition, Matt Winters drifted through the final nine months of 1990, disentangling himself from Will while the violent childhood he had escaped continued to shape whom he loved and what he believed he deserved. Through breakups, old lovers, ugly confrontations, and brief acts of defiance, Matt dragged himself toward December with no idea what came next, only the growing certainty that he could not keep living as though his life belonged to everyone but him.

   This fic takes place directly after the events of Chapter 3 of Now That We Don’t Talk.

   Title from the song Care by Conan Gray <3

   Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5qypAKVxBWnQVzsmCRv1a5?si=71rgf2N1RGi_1DfF9rT8EQ&utm_source=copy-link&pi=pJ5Ql1MhTE2lH

   Series

   • Part 5 of This is Me Trying / Don’t Blame Me Universe

   Language:

   English

   Words:

   6,228

   Chapters:

   1/?

   Comments:

   2

   Kudos:

   10

   Hits:

   86