#nancy and mike

[demobatman]

commission i did for @weirdowheeler !!!!!!!!! i love this prompt so much

[beep-beep-robin]

*raises head from chest while violently sobbing* autistic steve who‘s not accepted or accomodated by his parents and is forced to mask all the time, because harrington’s can’t be „weird“.

nancy‘s the first person who catches on and lets steve unmask around her, she knows how to help with certain things because she has experience with mike who‘s also autistic.

steve seeing dustin freely stim and infodump and realizing he‘s allowed to do that too.

robin being the person steve feels the most free around, they can communicate without using many or any words.

eddie helping him through meltdowns and cuddling him afterwards, while steve does the same for him. he encourages him to do things related to his special interests, knowing how important they are to him, and how his parents always used to keep him from them.

when steve loses most of his hearing, no one in the party needs to learn sign language because they already did - in case one of them (most often it‘s steve) goes nonverbal.

[loveinhawkins]

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 ao3

Joyce drops off Will, El and Mike with more homemade food after they’ve had dinner, which makes Steve smile. 

“Tell your mom I’m not gonna have enough space to put all of this in the fridge.”

“You can just eat some of it and then you will have space,” El says, matter-of-fact, “like what Eddie is doing.”

Eddie pauses in his eating of Koogle chocolate spread straight out the jar.

Steve laughs loudly.

Eddie sighs, leans into the melodrama of it. “Damn, right for the jugular. Haven’t I suffered enough?”

El makes a show of thinking in response. Eddie watches her with infinitely growing fondness, how she fights to keep a straight face, unable to stop her smile from breaking through. “No.”

Eddie slumps against the counter like he’s just received a fatal blow.

“Hey, person without a cast,” Steve says dryly, “help put some stuff away, this isn’t a hotel.”

“I dunno, Harrington, you seem like the type to have monogrammed dressing gowns and shit.”

The tips of Steve’s ears turn a damning red.

Eddie pounces on the sight with a delighted grin. “Oh dear god.”

“Eddie—”

“Holy shit,” Eddie whispers, like he’s found the Holy Grail. “I was just talking out my ass man, but. You do.”

“Only ‘cause Robin—it was one joke Christmas present, all right?”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”

They all make short work of putting the food away, but the kids linger in the kitchen, like they don’t want to say goodbye just yet.

It’s funny, Eddie has distant memories of Hawkins characterising Will Byers as a quiet little kid when he went ‘missing’, but there’s hardly any of that shyness now. The only slight hint of uneasiness Eddie can discern is that every so often, Will’s hand will rise up as if to scratch the back of his neck, like he’s hardly aware that he’s doing it; he spots El catching his hand in hers once, gently pulling it back down—does it in such a way that it never draws attention.

If anything, Mike is the quiet one, which is tripping Eddie up; he’s so used to his vocal commentary at Hellfire. He can’t tell if it’s just general post-nearly end of the world exhaustion or—something else. He doesn’t know what.

From the way Mike is standing, shoulders occasionally hiking up to his ears, Eddie gets the feeling that he doesn’t want to be asked about it.

Will does the majority of the talking, spends most of the time making references to what went down in California that Eddie can barely follow, revels in teasing Dustin about Suzie—

“Wait, Henderson’s girlfriend is real?” Eddie says.

Dustin glares at him. “Hey!”

Steve nods seriously. “I know.”

Dustin spins around, pokes Steve in the side. “Hey.”

Bizarrely, this prompts Will into an enthusiastic rendition of NeverEnding Story, which makes Dustin groan as if he’s been plagued with it for centuries. But there’s a celebratory sound to all of it, to the way Will sings cheekily, even the way Dustin is rolling his eyes—like they can’t believe they can afford the time to just be silly.

Under the cover of the kids’ laughter, Steve leans forward in his seat, catching Eddie by the wrist.

“Hey, later could you—would you mind helping me up the stairs? I wanna…” He pushes back his hair, grimacing. “Got, like, a sink wash in hospital, but it wasn’t that great.”

There’s a self-conscious air to how he speaks, how he keeps fiddling with flyaway strands of hair.

“Yeah, man, no problem,” Eddie says, matching Steve’s lowered volume. Still look good to me.

They wait until they’re alone—Dustin leaves in Joyce’s car, too, with a firm, “I’ll be back,” flung over his shoulder; Steve snorts, “Sure thing, Arnie.”

Once they conquer the stairs, Eddie’s shoulder aching from Steve needing to lean on it, Eddie optimistically believes that the rest will be plain sailing from here.

Steve’s set up on a stool, and Eddie’s standing in the bathtub, about to see how far the shower-head can stretch.

Steve is in the middle of saying, “Oh, just watch out, don’t think I changed the temperature from when I last—”

Eddie’s elbow catches on the dial. He shrieks as he’s immediately hit with a blast of cold water.

“Jesus Christ,” he wheezes, finally managing to switch the shower off. His hair is sopping wet. “How am I the freak? What kind of monster takes a cold shower willingly?”

And Steve laughs so hard that he nearly falls off the stool, as if the light-heartedness of the kids earlier has lifted his spirits, made him giddy.

“You look,” he says, through a raucous fit of giggles, “like a drowned rat.”

“Excuse me? Oh, tread very, very carefully, Harrington,” Eddie says, raising the shower-head in warning.

Steve raises an eyebrow coolly. “You’re bluffing.”

Eddie is, in fact, not bluffing.

-

“Oh wow.” Eddie makes a low whistle, like he’s just discovered a rare antique. “Why isn’t this behind glass? This shit is history; it should be preserved.”

Steve blinks, gives him a sardonic look from where he’s lying on the bed, leg propped up with pillows. “Pretty sure I’m not the only person to own a Hawkins Phys. Ed T-shirt.”

Eddie scoffs, shaking out the shirt with a pointless flourish before putting it back in the closet. “Yeah, but you, like, wore it.”

“Oh, sorry, I misunderstood you, man. So I’m the only person ever to wear a Hawkins Phys. Ed T-shirt.”

“You know what I mean, asshole.”

Before Steve got round to actually washing his hair, they had spent a lot of time just goofing around, trying to soak the other. While attempting to ensure that it was a fair fight, that Steve didn’t overbalance on the stool, Eddie ended up nearly braining himself on the tub’s faucets—but maybe he really did suffer a head injury, he reasons, otherwise there’s no excuse for what he says next.

“You made it part of your whole thing, you know? Like, yeah, people wear clothes, but you wore outfits.”

Steve laughs, rolling his eyes. “Shut up. You’re making me sound like a sitcom character.”

“Oh, but you were,” Eddie says, grinning with the knowledge that he’s about to be very annoying. “Did you see yourself in the school corridors? You walked like you had your own theme music, man.”

“Says you,” Steve retorts. “I think a laugh track would’ve helped your cafeteria sermons.” And before Eddie can attempt a theatrical gasp of offence, Steve points at a baggy sweater in the closet. “Hey, gimme that one, it’ll do.”

Eddie actually puts some effort into properly aiming the shirt when he throws it, but Steve almost drops it. Eddie turns, ready to tease him, because Steve Harrington is hardly known for fumbling a catch, but stops when he sees the stricken look on Steve’s face.

“What is it?”

“I just—I just remembered,” Steve stutters out, eyes wide. “Shit, Eddie, I’m sorry. Your vest.”

Eddie stares, uncomprehending. “Come again?”

“Your vest. Damn it, I didn’t even think to ask for… they must’ve cut it off me or—”

“Oh, Jesus,” Eddie says, and the hair on the back of his neck stands on end. He shakes his head to try and clear it of the awful image they must’ve cut it off me conjures up then says, with fervour, “Steve. Don’t worry about it. Like, honestly, truly? Do not worry about it. I really can’t stress how much I don’t give a shit.”

Steve frowns, clearly still unhappy about it.

“I’ll just steal one of your polos and call it even.”

Steve smiles weakly; Eddie still counts it as a win. “Mm, I have it on good authority that the Phys. Ed T-shirt is highly sought after.”

“Damn, what idiot said that?”

Eddie turns while shutting the closet, glancing over at Steve as he does so. That’s when he sees it, sees Steve’s bare skin as he takes his shirt off, about to change into the sweater—

There’s no bandages wrapped around his middle anymore. They have healed faster than any normal wounds should, but that fact doesn’t diminish the way Eddie’s stomach lurches at the sight: the gouges in the skin from the bats, and several deep, ragged claw marks. There’s a sudden ringing in his ears; the wetness of Steve’s blood on his fingers…

He feels his knee slam against the bed frame distantly, like it’s happening to someone else. Then Steve’s hand is wrapped around his wrist, and he’s thrown back into his body, and he tilts—

“Hey, hey, you’re all right,” Steve says, and he pulls Eddie down to sit on the bed.

Eddie sways, tries to stand up again—but that just makes the sudden faintness worse.

“Woah, take it easy,” Steve murmurs, and Eddie blinks and blinks until his face swims into view, eyebrows drawn in concern. “God, you feeling okay? You went white.”

“You were bleeding,” Eddie says stupidly. He squeezes his eyes shut, tips his head down and just breathes.

And then he feels Steve gently guide his hand to rest over the wounds. Places it there, puts his own hand on top.

“Not anymore,” Steve says simply.

Eddie traces the marks. They don’t feel overly cold which helps. His hand rises and falls with every breath Steve takes.

Steve keeps his eyes on him, doesn’t let go of his hand until Eddie can stand again.

-

Steve has already drifted off to sleep on the couch when the phone rings.

Eddie picks it up with a quiet, “Hello?”

“E-Eddie?”

At first, Eddie doesn’t recognise the voice on the other end. It’s only when his name is repeated that the realisation hits.

It’s Mike.

Eddie has never heard him sound so uncertain, not even when he was first invited to sit at Hellfire’s lunch table.

“Hey, Mike,” he says, can’t stop a note of anxiety bleeding through. “What’s up?”

“It’s… it’s Nancy,” Mike says. He starts off almost reluctant, as if he’s worried about breaking some sort of sibling code by mentioning her, but the sound of his true fear quickly overrides that. “She—she left, and she told me she was gonna, um, call you, or something? I don’t know, but she… she’s not back yet and I… I don’t think she did. Call you.”

“She didn’t,” Eddie confirms, grabs a piece of his hair and pulls.

Mike’s voice pitches a little higher; he sounds very young. “I don’t know where she’s gone. Eddie, she didn’t even take her car.”

“Okay, okay.” Eddie’s eyes dart about the room, land on Steve’s car keys. “Hey, Mike? It’ll be okay, man. I’m gonna go get her.”

He heads for the door in a mad dash, one arm through his leather jacket. Before he goes, he takes the time to write Steve a note—if he wakes up, Eddie figures that there’s no point in him just sitting there alone, worrying, so he settles for something that will hopefully make him laugh instead.

Back soon. Totally not stealing your car. Cross my heart. On an unrelated note, I took your car keys. -E

-

He finds her at the trailer park, of course. Sitting right by his and Wayne’s place, in the spot where…

She’s hugging her knees, pressing the side of one cheek into them. Her boots are muddy again.

Eddie gets out of the car with more noise than is strictly necessary, so she’s not startled by his approach.

“This wasn’t the deal, Wheeler,” he says mildly, sitting down beside her.

She’s shivering.

Eddie tries very hard not to look at the trailer; it’s just a shell now, it’s just…

“Sorry,” Nancy says, too quiet. “I was… gonna call but. Lost track of time.” She sniffs, mumbles into her jeans, “Had enough of driving.”

“Why?” Eddie asks carefully.

“Because.” Nancy sniffs again. “I had to drive Jason Carver around town.”

For a moment, Eddie forgets how to breathe.

“What? Why the fuck would you even—? He could’ve—”

He stops talking abruptly as Nancy shakes her head, looking scarily calm about the whole thing.

“No. He would’ve killed you immediately. Not me; he’d have to think about it before he… It was… a calculated risk, I guess.”

Eddie barks out a sharp, fearful laugh—remembers Steve saying that him and Nancy were too similar and thinks yeah, no fucking kidding.

“Wheeler,” he breathes, “that was a stupid move.” It feels inadequate for what he actually means, which is some panicked stream of We’ve come too close to losing people, but the terror cuts down his words, makes them small. Stupid.

“He had a gun,” Nancy says, voice flat. She hovers a hand over her side, and Eddie doesn’t need to see it to know that there’ll be a mark there, from where the gun was pressed into her skin.

“Jesus Christ. Are you—”

“I’m fine. He didn’t…” Nancy sighs. “He didn’t do anything, really. I did most of the talking. Just… drove around. Stopped in a parking lot, right where one of the cracks… It’s still visible, only a little bit. Then I just. I asked him.”

“Asked him what?” Eddie says hoarsely.

Nancy’s smile is grim. “If he believed it,” she says. Her voice is as cold as steel. “If he could honestly sit there and think that a boy, that you could have done all this. And I could tell from his eyes that he didn’t, but that he was in too deep. Too cowardly to…” She seethes, spits out the next words: “I told him he could go rot.”

“Wheeler,” Eddie whispers. “God, please tell me he didn’t hurt you.”

She reaches for his hand. Squeezes. “No. I promise. He’s… everything’s being dealt with. It’s bigger than you,” she says, not unkindly. “Plus there’s—we’ve got some, um.” A tiny smile, a proper one. “Unique resources. It’s getting buried, Eddie, I swear, everything to do with you. I’m—we’re working on it. We just. The idea is to, um, replace one paranoia with another, that’s how we sell the—not a full lie, just…” She sets her jaw. “I don’t want you to be looking over your shoulder, ever again.”

Eddie has countless replies on his tongue, namely, What the fuck does all that even mean?

Is this why he’s hardly been given a second glance in the street?

Out loud, he says, “That… sounds like a helluva lot of work. You—you don’t have to—”

“I needed to.” Nancy smiles weakly. “That was the whole plan, right? Find Vecna, kill him. Clear your name.” Her smile falls. “I don’t like… I don’t like things being left… unfinished.” She sighs, repeats, voice small, “I needed to.”

It sounds different this time. Like if she didn’t have that objective, she’d fall apart.

It throws Eddie. How can he be that important? But he looks in her eyes and can tell she means it with all her heart. 

“Eddie, I…” She looks down at the ground. Briefly presses the back of her hand to her mouth. “I need to apologise to Steve. To you.”

Eddie stares at her. “No, I’m… kinda confident that you don’t.”

“No, you.” Her hand starts to shake in his. “You don’t understand.” She looks at him, eyes filled with tears. “I saw it. I saw everything. When he—when Henry showed me… there was so much of it, and it was so fast, and I. I just convinced myself that I was wrong. But then, when I saw you driving. And Steve. There was… this look on his face. And I knew—I knew he was going to die, because Henry… he showed me what he was going to do.”

Eddie can feel himself pale. Nancy withdraws her hand, turns away from him.

“I’m sorry. I thought I could stop it, if I just kept it in my head, it wouldn’t… oh, God.”

“Wheeler. Wheeler, look at me.” Eddie waits until she does, her face wet. “It wasn’t your fault. None of it.”

She moves forward, trembles in his arms. “God, Eddie,” she says, distraught, “it was awful. The whole thing.”

“Yeah.” Eddie leans his head against hers, shuts his eyes. “Fucking sucked.”

“You wouldn’t stop screaming,” Nancy whispers. She jerks her head over to where Eddie parked Steve’s car. “You fell there, and I—I was so scared you wouldn’t get up again. I told you that you had to let h-him go, and it. It was like you couldn’t hear me, and a-all I could think was I’m going to lose them both.” 

Eddie inhales. Exhales. She’d gotten him out. Time for him to return the favour.

“Nancy. Come on.” He gently guides her to stand up. “Time to go home, ‘kay?”

Mike’s waiting outside when Eddie drives up to the house; the headlights illuminate him, his too short dressing gown, his gangly teenaged vulnerability.

Nancy fumbles with the car door handle. Sighs through a sob. “Oh, Mike.”

Eddie watches them embrace, how they cling to one another. He sees Mike raise his hand while still holding onto his sister, sees him mouth Thank you.

Eddie doesn’t pull away until they’re both safely inside.

The fact that he’s driving Steve’s car helps him keep it together for the rest of the drive: the thought that he cannot be seen in public having a breakdown in it.

And then he’s back at Steve’s, and Steve is still asleep, thank God, and there’s an uncontrollable tremor to his hands when he sets Steve’s car keys on the table.

Shit, is he going to throw up? He might.

Oh no you don’t. You’re not waking Steve by upchucking onto the rug, get it together.

“You’re fine,” Eddie says, tugging harshly on his hair. “You’re fine, you’re fucking fine.”

He forces himself to breathe in and out as the wave of everything crashes over him, until he no longer sees the trailer park flash across his vision, like a ghostly afterimage.

When the worst of it is over, he perches on the arm of the couch, then carefully hovers his hand near Steve’s face, just so he can feel him breathing.

See? He’s right here, you’re not… not back there. Not anymore.

Steve stirs very slightly at the movement.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Eddie whispers, still catching his breath through the remnants of panic.

Steve makes a soft, questioning noise. And then Eddie feels a finger, tracing letters on the back of his hand.

OK?

Eddie smiles tremulously. “Yeah, I-I’m… I am now.”

-

Eddie stays up all night.

It’s not so bad, not when he gets to see Steve wake up for his early morning meds, taken so he can have breakfast with the upcoming dose in a few hours.

“Huh? You’re never…” Steve yawns. His hair is soft from being air dried last night, falling into his eyes. “Never up this early. Not normally.”

“First time for everything,” Eddie says, which is easier than my heart was beating too fast to sleep.

Steve doesn’t call him out on the obvious dodge, still drowsy, growing even more so after he takes the pills.

“You bored? Can put something on if you want, but Dustin might’ve left a… a tape in the, um…”

Oh, there you go, Eddie thinks fondly, and watches as Steve falls asleep mid-sentence.

Some time later, he’s not sure when, the sun starts to poke through the curtains. It’s a dull kind of brightness, but still bright enough to make his eyes blink a little more… and more…

-

He’s been moved to lie on the inside of the couch. Eddie turns his head, feels the warmth of someone next to him. Steve.

“Hi,” Steve says, looking down at him with a smile. “You want some breakfast? Dustin dropped off doughnuts.”

There’s sugar at the corner of Steve’s mouth, like glitter.

Eddie hums, low and lethargic. “Maybe later. Just… mm.” He goes to rub at his eyes, but his hand stills then falls away from his face, a lassitude to his movements. “Five more minutes. Gotta… rest my eyes, just for…”

“Sure,” Steve says, and there’s affection in his teasing when he says, “You go ahead and ‘rest your eyes’ for a few more hours.”

“Mm…”

“Nance called,” Steve says, soft as anything, like he doesn’t want to wake Eddie if he’s already fallen asleep, but still wants him to know. “She’s okay. She says thanks.”

Eddie reaches out, eyes closed, pats Steve’s knee clumsily. “S’good.”

“Yeah,” Steve says, quiet. Eddie can feel him smoothing hair off his forehead, tracing his finger down his nose—makes it impossible for him to even try opening his eyes.

He barely catches it, nearly drifting… But he swears he hears Steve murmur, as if to himself, “You’re so good.”

“You’re warm,” Eddie mumbles without really meaning to.

Steve chuckles, so gently. Keeps stroking that soothing pattern, from Eddie’s brow down to his nose. “Am I now?”

Oh, you don’t know, Eddie thinks, and everything’s fading now, the world going all soft and indistinct, like cotton wool. You don’t know what it was like. I never want to feel you be that cold again.

[friendsdontlieokay]

You can't tell me that the duffers discarded the whole wheeler siblings plot after Nancy hugged Mike so tight, running out of breath and almost crushing his bones and literally put her head on Mike's shoulder as a source of comfort and to further comprehend if he's okay or not because she was so worried even after their non stop arguments, fights, snitching and bitchiness all season. That's a criminal act for which the duffers must be sued (after season 5 comes out though)

[robinsteve]

30 DAYS TO STRANGER THINGS 4: DAY TWENTY-TWO

favorite family dynamic: nancy and mike wheeler

[will80sbyers]

STRANGER THINGS - S2E08

[robin-buck1ey]

Nancy and Mike having the, “don’t you dare say we’re alike each other” relationship

But also Nancy and Mike

Mike: has bi awakening and falls for someone with a B last name (Will Byers)

Nancy: has bi awakening and falls for someone with a B last name (Robin Buckley)

[mikhardwheat]

Nancy & Eddie Friendship Dynamics

Nancy and Eddie are bffs and Mike hates it, because Nancy's painting Eddie's nails and they hang out a lot. Mike thinks they're dating. He cries for an hour when he finds out that Eddie's dating Steve.

Eddie and Nancy are hanging out at Wheelers. The doorbell rings, Mike opens the door.

Steve: hi, is Eddie he-

Mike: no.

He shuts the door and walks away

[counting-stars-gayly]

I’m aware Nancy and Mike don’t have much of a relationship, but I know for a fact that if he asked her to do his makeup and/or teach him how to do it himself, she would give a surprised, “Uh…Yeah, sure.” No way that mf would risk making him feel weird about it.

[byler-makemewanttobelieveitsokay]

The Wheeler Family Sketch

This is another early sketch. Most of the information is canon to the AU, but, like, take it with a grain of salt, none of it means too much...

(Click for better quality)

Yes I did draw this in Geography and Maths class too.

[nancywheelersgirlfriend]

Prompt: Nancy and Mike talk and nancy tells him she's dating Robin but he already knew because he noticed things but he was waiting for her to open up about it and they hug and they're happy. And then Mike starts teasing nancy when Robin is around

i'm obsessed with the wheeler siblings, expect to see more of them!!

i walk the line (2,073 words)

From now on, no more secrets. Okay?

Yeah, that had been a fat load of shit. 

It was practically in their blood to hide things from each other. Despite both being clued in on the open secret of the Upside-Down, Mike still kept his door firmly shut whenever she was around. She would drive him for the sake of driving him, but his mouth never budged. He was a tight puzzle she couldn’t crack and it killed her inside.

Especially since she’d left for her first year at Emerson - Mike wasn’t the best at writing letters. When he did, they were often void of any real information. Her therapist blamed her folks. She couldn’t help but blame herself. The unspoken rift of a brother and sister had widened exponentially, no thanks to her. If they were going to stop keeping secrets, she was going to have to make the first move.

Home for an early summer, Nancy had arrived late the night before with no time to even say hello. When she’d peeked through his surprisingly ajar bedroom door, his bed was empty. Her mom said he was sleeping over at Will’s. 

Nancy felt more nervous for this conversation than she had for her Emerson interview. She knew, in the back of her mind, it was absurd to be fretting like this. She was an adult now. She’d fought monsters. She’d made it through exam week with all limbs still intact. But Mike’s opinion reigned above most in her mind - he was her little brother. Even through the tense atmosphere and lack of communication, they understood each other on a level no one else could. 

Robin had phoned in the night before, still a few days out from leaving her dorm at the University of Indianapolis. She’d stayed close, at least for her first year of college. Now it was Nancy’s turn to rush out anxious words, bitten nails. Her girlfriend was as reassuring as she usually was, a wonderful trait of hers that had Nancy falling deeper with every carefully placed word and smiled sentence. You’re fine, Robin said. He’s fine. It’ll be fine.

Yeah, it’ll be fine.

On the eve of Nancy’s second night home, after confirming Mike was friendless and otherwise unoccupied in his tiny bedroom, she stood outside his door in contemplation. A big part of her wanted to turn tail and run. Perhaps keep this particular secret under wraps for as long as possible. But she knew if she did, eventually she’d explode. She raised her hand and knocked.

The record playing dimly in the background, some Duran Duran track, cut off sharply.

“Door’s open,” Mike called out. Nancy resisted the urge to make some snarky remark about how it certainly wasn’t before she twisted the knob and stepped through.

Mike was sprawled out on his bedroom floor surrounded by comics. Clearly their mother had told him to clean his room - some were stacked up in a pile, probably recycling. Others he’d gotten distracted by, now totally off on a superhero-filled tangent. Nancy avoided stepping on the corner of a copy of the Avengers as she moved further in.

“Hey, Mike,” She greeted softly. He glanced up from the comic book sprawled across his face, watching her with those big black eyes of his. Nancy was hit with a wave of recognition - they shared the same eyes. She closed the door behind her. “Can we talk?”

“Uh, sure,” Mike said after a moment, scrambling to sit up and brush away the sprawled comics. “You can sit down on my bed, sorry about the mess.” Nancy smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way, plopping down on his bunk bed and nearly hitting her head in the process. She tilted back slightly, enough to see the words carved along the wood underside. Lucas’s signature. A fading heart with an ‘E’ scratched out in the center. Two little stick people closer to the head of his bed. She reached up with two fingers to trace the indents.

“Who is this meant to be?” She asked. He came into view then, a mess of curly black hair and awkward limbs. He looked up to where she was tracing. As he ducked his head, she caught a glimpse of a pale red spreading like wildfire across his cheeks. 

“Nobody,” He replied. Inwardly she sighed, dropping her hand so that he could sit down beside her. Right - the lying.

“Okay,” She dragged out the word, wiping sweaty palms off on her pants.

“What did you want to talk about?” Nancy anxiously wet a stray curl, twisting it around her pointer over and over again.

“We said no more secrets,” She began hesitantly, casting a cautious glance over at him through her hair. Mike nodded in vague agreement, face curious. It was a good sign. “So. I wanted to tell you a secret, just between you and me. I feel like we’ve been growing apart.”

“It’s hard to stay together when you’re on the other side of the country,” Mike admitted, half-joke and half-serious. Nancy sheepishly shrugged, a soft smile playing on her face. “But yeah. I, uh. I think so, too.”

“There’s been something I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, anyhow,” Nancy began. She took in a deep breath. Here goes. “I’m dating somebody.”

Mike snorted in disbelief, glancing at her incredously.

“That’s what you’re sweating over?” He asked.

“It’s who I’m dating,” Nancy corrected softly, looking up at her brother through her eyelashes tentatively. She realized now that he’d skyrocketed above her in height, head bent at an awkward angle to stay level to hers. His hair smooshed against the underside of the top bunk.

Mike frowned. She could practically hear him running down a list of potential embarrassing people - Steve, Jonathan, some white-collared Republican against everything she stood for…

“Who?” Mike asked finally. She supposed he’d reached the end of that list, fruitless and confused as ever. When he saw how much she was faltering, practically falling apart, his face softened accordingly. “Who, Nance?”

She wet her bottom lip and took the plunge.

“Robin,” Nancy said, and it was a name she’d said in many contexts before; annoyance, adoration, in the midst of a laugh, half-asleep, in tears. Never as anxiously as it came out now and it was almost unfamiliar in that tense. Mike blinked with those big owl eyes of his, staring at her without speaking. This, surely, was the worst part. The waiting. And then: his mouth spilt in an unstoppable, toothy grin.

“I knew it,” He said confidently, leaning close but hesitating to reach out and make contact. He was as awkward as he’d always been - they’d never been very good at physical affection anyway. Nancy made the first move, reaching out with an open palm to take her brother’s hand in hers. Mike was quick to interlace their fingers, giving Nancy an accepting squeeze. She could feel that past year’s worth of tension, perhaps years worth, drop from her shoulders as she did. Mike’s opinion meant the world to her, more than even their parents. They’d survived an apocalypse, they could survive Nancy having a girlfriend.

“Wait-” She said, suddenly registering his words and his shit-eating expression. “You knew?”

“I didn’t want to say anything,” Mike began, voice filled with mischief. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead appreciated how casual he was. Even though Nancy was shocked by the idea that he’d known. She’d tried so hard. 

“How?” Nancy asked, and now it was her turn to be incredulous. Mike dropped her hand to run it through his hair, leaning forwards onto his elbows and escaping the cramped space of the bunkbed.

“I saw your university phone bill,” Mike spoke casually, shrugging his shoulders. “Mom and Dad left it out on the counter - bunch of calls to Indianapolis and she’s the only person we know living there right now. Plus, you talk about her, like, so much.”

“So much?” Nancy parroted, incredibly embarrassed and also so, so happy. She buried her head in her hands as Mike laughed.

“Do you proofread your letters?” Mike said, snarky as he usually was. 

“Shut up!” Nancy practically shouted, flying out her arm to smack him in the chest. Mike went back onto his bed with an ‘oof’, the wind knocked from his lungs. But he was still cackling, that shithead. Nancy flopped down beside him, hand to her face. “So, um. You’re really okay with it?”

“Were you really worried I wouldn’t be?” Mike retorted, flipping on his side to face her. “Nancy, you’re my sister.” 

“It’s not that simple,” Nancy said, fingers playing anxiously with one of her beltloops.

“Out of everything that is incredibly complex in our lives,” Mike laughed absently as he spoke, “I feel like this is something I can get over.”

“Thanks, Mike,” Nancy said, smiling in pure relief. She took the smell of his boy room, his comforter, the view of her younger brother sprawled out beside her - how he was so tall now his legs came clean off the edge of the bed, feet nearly on the floor. “Here, come here.” She opened her arms and pulled him close to her chest, just like they would when they were much, much smaller. And eons away - the naivety and innocence gone. 

“Seriously?” Mike grumbled, but for all his false annoyance he hugged her back. She buried her face into the crook of his neck and tried to hold him there, at that age, for just a few moments longer. She knew it was selfish. “Um, Nance?”

“Yeah?” She said, hand coming up to hold onto the back of his head. It felt like the hugs they shared at the end of the world. How refreshing it was to hold him like this now without the overbearing fear of an interdimensional monster. Just Nancy and Mike. Mike, who loved her still - would always love her. She tried to stop herself from tearing up but the water came anyway. If Mike felt or heard her crying into his hair, he was kind enough not to mention it.

“I’ve got something to tell you too.”

bonus

“Hey, Little Wheeler,” Robin greeted cheerfully, all pink-cheeked and breathless from having stood out on the chilly December porch for so long. In her hands she cradled an outrageous assortment of presents, the stack teetering from side to side and becoming more precarious every passing second.

Mike, from where he’d swung open the door - and fresh off his first semester in New York - for his part didn’t look taken back. He reached out his arms helpfully, into which Robin threw up presents of various size and shape. He buckled under the weight of them.

“Hoping to impress somebody?” He asked, muffled by the wrapping paper.

“What?” Robin asked, distracted. She shut the front door behind her and began wiping off her big black boots on the welcome mat. “Oh - yeah. Yeah, how’d you know?” Mike’s unimpressed eyebrow was hidden by the present stack.

“You’ve already got Nance, you have nothing to worry about,” Mike said, laughing as he peeked through the stack to see Robin turning a bright red - not just from the harsh Hawkins wind. “I’m gonna put these in the living room.”

“Yeah,” Robin squeaked. Then, after her buffering, she took half the stack and followed him in through the family room. “You know, that reminds me - if you’ve got any juice on Nance, feel free to share it.” Mike’s booming laugh grew as they stepped close to the large tree, chopped down by his father a few weeks before and decorated with Holly’s homemade ornaments. Together they set down the presents. It was nice how well they fit in with the rest.

“Depends on what you got me,” Mike joked, hands on his hips. Robin grinned at him, a mischievous one he couldn’t help but replicate.

“TurboGrafx?” Robin said, voice tilted in a question. She was referencing a video game console that’d come out that past October and one Mike had been secretly mooning over. His smile grew. He laughed. Out of all of Nancy’s partners, he preferred Robin. It was all the better she didn’t seem to want to explode him with her mind, like Jonathan. Plus, she knew about video games. And she seemed good at keeping secrets.

“Well, to start - Nancy’s got this thing under her bed…”

[beetlepuff]

Thinking ab the stranger things members of the gang with older siblings being referred to as a smaller version of their last name

- So Nancy is Wheeler and Mike is Wheeler jr

- someone from the fruity four started calling him Wheeler Jr and it grew from there

- robin refers to him as nancy’s Training Wheels once while they were waiting for him in order to give him a ride

- steve being a mom one day gets fed up and goes “calm down Hot Wheels”. Lucas and dustin never let mike live that down. he is Hot Wheels tm.

- so now the Byers boys are involved in this. So jonathan is Byers and will becomes Baby Byers 

- then they include eleven because ofc they do, she’s a part of the byers clan now. So now its Mrs. Byers (joyce), Byers, Baby Byers, and Super Byers.

- and then one day someone refers to max as Little Buckley and both her and robin freeze and its all cute and shit

- they still call max Mayfield tho. its like the “did you call them mom” “i didn’t call you mom” “respect ur mother” thing, so it was like a one time thing, but neither of them forget it

- and robin calls her M&M (ik thats unrelated to this specific thing but still)

- Harrington and Henderson are last names that are used interchangeably. I think that they are similar enough for people to slip up and confuse them accidentally until it became a joke for the group. So now its interchangeable 

- they don’t dare call erica Little Sinclair. eddie is the only one that does it. 

[blankbedroom]

The Wheeler Family

When ppl write Mike in their fics I feel like they go a little overboard when it comes to the family dynamic so here are my ideas (plus some miscellaneous hcs)

Ted:

Conservative

Spends all day at work and all evening on the couch, he thinks he deserves it since he’s the breadwinner of the family

He’s very much not aware of his family, he barely pays attention to the kids on a good day. He’s pretty neglectful on that part.

He believes it’s Karen’s job to look after them, to give them advice and console them etc, hence why he doesn’t get involved.

Doesn’t hate his family by any means. He has an idea on how they should appear to other people and how they should function.

Very traditional values basically.

He almost never raises his voice, ‘fights’ are just Karen getting increasingly annoyed, her voice getting louder and louder because Ted just sits there and takes it. Karen will storm off and he’ll turn back to the T.V to let her ‘cool off’

The only time his voice is slightly raised is to reprimand his kids - usually Mike because father son things idk, you get it.

Karen:

She’s a lesbian u can tear that from my cold dead hands.

She knew this even back in high school, and she also knew she would never be able to marry for love so why not marry for convenance - Ted.

She does everything she’s supposed to and that’s still true today.

Is she a conservative? no. She’ll argue with Ted about things they disagree on but it’s difficult for her to really stand up to him, because it feel’s like she’s exposing too much of herself in the process.

Anyway, she’s the housewife she’s supposed to be but she cares for her kids, like so much.

There’s a reason Mike goes to her for support, she’s done nothing but her absolute best raising him, Nancy and Holly.

(She would take their side’s over Ted’s in a heartbeat)

Unhappily married but dealing w it like the queen she is.

She gets the idea Mike’s friends’ home lives might not be the best, it’s the biggest reason she likes hosting them. She’d absolutely bring down little trays of snack foods and constantly offer to make lunch and/or dinner for everyone.

Also, she’s heard about the Mayfields okay? She lets Max stay over constantly, practically shoves old clothes into her arms and sets a place for her at the dinner table every night. Max is an honorary Wheeler at this point.

Nancy:

The older sister - what else is there to say?

Because of the emotional distance in the family neither Nancy nor Mike really understand how to show love and affection to other people.

Nancy adores Mike, of course she does, he’s her brother. She has the overwhelming urge to protect him in the ways she knows how to.

During/after Upside Down era is where this really shines I’d think. She was faced with the very real possibility of her brother dying, and that was terrifying. She’d jump headfirst into danger before he had to any day.

She’s kind but firm I guess. She knows what it’s like to be in high school, she’s just barely graduated herself, so she wants to let Mike be a dumb kid despite everything. She badgers him to let her know when he’s home, where he’s going etc. “I don’t care you’re drinking Michael I care that you’re safe about it.”

She always asks if he’s 100% sure he’s locked his doors and windows before bed.

She likes helping Karen whenever she can.

Her and Mike never talk about their problems to each other but sometimes they’ll go into the other’s room and just hug. Sometimes they’ll have to share a bed just to be sure the other’s alive, or to help with nightmares. They both sleep with a lamp on now, and Mike’s walkie-talkie in range.

HAS ADHD

Mike:

Mike is a middle child…

His role in the family is much more passive tbh

He tries to avoid everyone when necessary, he hates family meal times because they just feel so plastic and fake to him

He spends most of his time in the basement, preferably with other people as distraction. Plus he gets to see a bit more of his mom when there’s friends around, she’s always worried about being a good host.

He’s absolutely dreadful with emotions - his role model has been Ted so we can see how well that’ll go.

‘Friends Don’t Lie’ policy matters because his whole family life is a lie.

ADHD GIFTED KID BURNOUT! After s1 his grades start slipping, the only class he still excels in is english for everything else he asks for homework answers.

A writer yet terrible with words

Also him and Will co parent clothes with how often they’ll switch the same jumpers/shirts

that’s all i got 🙄

[friendsdontlieokay]

Just thinking about how the Wheeler siblings share their favorite song just because their boyfriends do.

[tommyidk]

Robin, parlando a Mike prima che parta per le vacanze, cercando di tranquillizzarlo sul dover prendere l' aereo: non hai di che preoccuparti! pensa che anch'io una volta sono riuscita a prendere un' aereo da sola, non é difficile!

Steve, sinceramente stupito: wow- davvero?

Robin: si! una volta dovevo andare da un mio parente a Parigi

Nancy: visto Mike? te l' avevo detto, se ce l' ha fatta Robin puoi-

Robin: mi sono addormentata e quando mi sono svegliata ero a Vienna

Nancy: ...

Steve: ....

Mike: ...

Mike, guardando Nancy: dicevi?