#but AUUUGGGHH i have ideas

[mars-ipan]

going rabid going feral going rabid going feral

[zilodak]

that one art you drew of will telling young michael he's the love of his life seriously tears me up ............ alot of interpretations have will be cold and uncaring towards his kids from the get go but the idea of mike having happy memories with his father before everything happened is soo auuuggghh. if its ok id looove to hear more about your idea of their relationship!!

YEAH EXACTLY. I love giving Mike small happy memories, like his childhood wasn't all that bad and he had good memories of Will which makes him question later on if they even happened. He remember's Will's forehead kisses as he tucked Mike to bed, or the snowball fights, or how they'd sing along in the car, just tiny fragments of time where things made sense. It hurts to remember those moments when he's older, Mike avoids any mention of his childhood, not because it was sad, but because if he dwells on what he lost he will sob uncontrollably.

As for their relationship, Will once loved Mike, he really did. He was a fine-ish father when Mrs Afton was still alive, a workaholic and a bit neglectful at times, but he did treat Mike and Liz well. But as I said, he wasn't perfect, he was neglectful, and that neglect resulted in Mrs Afton's death a few months after C.C.'s birth. He didn't know how to grieve, in good old 70s / 80s toxic masculine fashion, he tried to repress his guilt and couldn't properly grieve bc he was expected to be the man of the family. Taking care alone of three kids and running a business became overwhelming and he'd just spend his time working on his machines instead, neglecting everything else. Michael had to take his spot as the caregiver in the family, he sacrificed a lot of his late childhood and teenage years to take care of his siblings, the house and even his father on top of everything else school threw at him. He found it unfair of course and he'd take it out on CC bc it was easy and he thought that his birth killed their mother (he knew it was not the case but it was easier to put blame than to unpack and process his trauma) and if he hadn't been born, she'd be still here and Mike wouldn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders (he didn't mean anything he said or thought, he loved his little brother he really did, he loved him so much, he knew it wasn't his fault). Mike was like his father in that sense, they didn't know how to process trauma, or guilt, they didn't know how to process grief. Will and Mike had a rocky relationship during that time, but those forehead kisses, the snowball fights and the singing was still there.

Until CC died.

And Will stopped looking at Michael.