#the way mike acts with will is different to how he acts with anyone else

[conflictofthemind]

Thoughts on "Escape from Camazotz"

Oppressive Suburbia, Conformity, and Season 5 Themes

I've long thought that a major focus of Season 5 will be the contrast between the families of The Wheelers and The Byers, and exploring how non-traditional family environments can be freeing vs the oppressive structure of the nuclear family.

In a Wrinkle In Time, Camazotz is a planet controlled by the big bad of the book, the "IT", who forces the citizens into a conformity that resembles American suburbia. All of the houses the same, the citizens the same, doing the same things at the same time without individual identity. Without anything different. Different means a lot of things, but with Stranger Things dropping different in reference to Will's identity and the presumable themes of this season, it will heavily codify as queerness and how it threatens the cisheterosexual family model.

Henry was raised in the 1950s, a decade still revered by conservatives for it's traditional family dynamics that supposedly were the peak of culture and happiness for all. That was all a lie, of course, and Henry knew so as he shows to Nancy and Eleven during his monologue. The second most conservative decade aside from the 1950s in American society is widely considered to be the 1980s.

The Creels will serve in parallel to The Wheelers; the worst example of what they could become and the damage that this type of family could do to a child that is different in any way. Notice how Vecna selectively shows Nancy visions of The Wheelers dying, but not anyone else she may consider family or friends (like Jonathan).

That is; unless they change their ways and come together as a healthy functioning family facing their traumas, The Wheelers will be toast.

Karen has been moved up to a main character role this season. Ted's actor says the father starts to show up more for Holly (hold that) and realizes he wants to act differently. Holly has been recast. Finn has said Mike goes on a much more personal journey this season, and steps up as a leader.

Oh, also: the catalyst for all of this is that Holly goes missing. The contrast will help show how the Byers (including El and Hopper here) were able to pull together and help solve Will's disappearance, versus how the Wheelers as a closed off nuclear family grapple with Holly's vanishing.

Each of the Byers is in some kind of a non-1950s conformist relationship, but particularly Will (not in one now but we all know he will be). I think El might represent, after she breaks up with Mike, the fear of the unmarried woman being satisfied without a husband. The above shot really emphasizes my point.

I predict that Will will end up coming out to his family rather early on, and we will see all of them immediately accept him with little surprise or push-back. Will is a visible gay man who comes from an open minded non traditional family (divorced, non-married, adoptive) that is willing to have honest conversations.

But this theme will place the most focus on the Wheelers. Mike is the main character of said family and this will particularly focus on his arc, and his acceptance of his queerness in the midst of suburban conformity.

He is not visible, he comes from a Reagan-supporting family who don't communicate with each other. He is not particularly close with his family like Will is. He pushes his feelings down and tries his damn hardest to be normal despite it all. His trauma hasn't really been addressed at all. He is falling back into his usual habits - the one thing he dared to do different (grow his hair long) has gone back to how it was.

It's not all doom and gloom though. This season above all will be a redemption arc of the American nuclear family, how they choose to escape their conformity and learn to be there for each other, thus overpowering Vecna. Not that the Wheelers are going to end this personally.

"Great, more hysteria. Just what we need". "It's the news, now indistinguishable from the tabloids".

[happy74827]

Bittersweet Blunders

[Mike Schmidt x Female!Reader]

Synopsis: In what was supposed to be the "perfect date" turns into an absolute dumpster fire of a night. Fortunately for Mike, you couldn't care at all about it.

WC: 4295

Category: Mega Fluff

So it seems that a lot of people like my Mike fics (yay), so I wrote another one because why not. At this point, my entire masterlist will just consist of this man, and I'm 100% here for it. Also, I don't know why fluff is the hardest for me to write, but this is my attempt at a full-on cuteness overload without a drop of angst (I apparently live for the drama), so we'll see how this goes.

『••✎••』

You were a very bubbly, cheerful person. You always thought that it was one of the best qualities that someone could have, and while it wasn't always the case, it always helped you in the past to brighten up anyone's day, as well as the other way around. You were always the life of the party, and you'd always make sure that everyone had a great time whenever you were with them.

It was probably one of the reasons Mike had liked you so much, though it had taken him quite some time to admit it to himself. He didn't want to believe it at first; after all, Mike was usually the guy who kept his feelings in, but as time went on, he couldn't keep denying the fact that he liked your presence and always wanted to be around you.

For him, you were a ray of sunshine in his otherwise very dull life. Sure, Abby had been a joy, and still is, but you... you were just special in a way that Mike couldn't explain. You had a certain quality about you that he couldn't describe, and he's never been able to figure out what it is that made you stand out so much to him. You were the complete opposite of him. His black clothes, your bright smile. His gloominess, your cheerfulness. His silence, your bubbly voice. His abrasive demeanor, your kind words.

Even though you were completely opposite of him in personality, there was one thing that you both shared in common. You were both attracted to each other in a way that you couldn't explain, even to yourself. But it was a feeling that you were sure of, and the fact that you're finally together made you realize why.

When he had started dating you, it had been like the clouds parted for him. The sky cleared up, and everything felt right again. He felt like his life was finally stitching itself back together, and suddenly, he and Abby were a lot closer, too. It was almost like a weight was lifted off of his chest, and he was finally able to breathe again.

Your relationship was very new to him, as you were the first relationship he'd ever had. But now that you were with him, he wouldn't have it any other way. You were just... you. You made him happy in a way that no one else had, and he was determined to make sure that you felt the same way.

Of course, you felt the same way.

For you, Mike was your best friend. He had been the one person who'd been able to make you smile in your worst moments. He was always there when you needed him, and you'd always made sure to do the same thing for him. He was your ray of sunshine despite him not acting much like one. You loved the little things that made him tick, like his strange fascination with coffee and the fact that he always had a blanket in the car with him, just in case he was tired or cold. It made him feel like home to you.

And it was exactly how Mike felt with you, too, obviously for different reasons, of course, but all the same. He loved every single thing about you, no matter what. Your personality, your voice, even the way you walk, he loved every single bit of it. The first time you two had kissed, it was almost as though fireworks were going off all around you both, and Mike could've sworn he heard angels sing as well.

You were a ray of sunshine to him, and now that you were in his life, he couldn't see himself without you. He loved you more than he could say, and he was determined to show that to you, always.

That's why he decided he would take the day off of work to plan out the perfect date for you two. He didn't know exactly what you were into; you always seemed to be good with anything, but he knew he had to try and do something nice. After all, you were worth it. You were the most special person in his life, second to Abby, of course, but special just the same.

So he set off to find you a nice place to have dinner, a thing neither one of you had done since the start of the relationship. You had usually just eaten at his place or gone somewhere that served coffee (somewhere more in Mike's price range), but he wanted something a bit fancier; after all, today was special, and he saved up enough to make it happen. He wanted you to have a nice day out, just like you always did for him whenever he had a bad day.

He eventually found you a place, a fancy Italian restaurant that he thought you would like, and made reservations for a place with a nice view of the sunset, just so you could watch it with him. It was going to be a great night.

Of course, it had been the complete opposite of what Mike had thought it would be. Two hours before the planned evening, the person covering his job for him just had to cancel on him at the last minute, leaving him to panic. He hadn't told you the surprise for the evening at all, so he had to make several, several calls just to find a replacement for his job and then to find a babysitter for Abby. Max... Well, Max wasn't around much anymore, and since you were the usual babysitter for Abby, it took Mike a while to find someone who was available, and even when he did, it took nearly twenty minutes for them to show up.

But he got it fixed and done in good time. His car was a little bit messy, and his "nice" shirt might have been a little wrinkly for the occasion, but to see the smile on your face when you got to his car made it worth it.

"You're wearing a tie," you commented, your face full of surprise as you hopped inside

"What can I say? It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing," Mike replied, turning the ignition and starting the car. He looked back at you, the smile on your face making his heart flutter just as much as it had the first time he'd laid his eyes on you. "Did I, um... You look great."

You were wearing a very nice dress, something that Mike had always loved on you, and it fit you very well. It was a light pink color, with a flowy skirt and a short-sleeved top, but it complimented you so well that he wondered why he hadn't seen it on you before. It made you look stunning, in his opinion.

"Thanks," you replied. "You look pretty handsome yourself, Mikey."

Oh, how he loved that nickname. It was one of the few things that Mike loved hearing you call him, even if it was in a joking matter. It made him feel special when he heard it, like you were just so happy to be around him that it was just another way of saying so. He smiled as he pulled out of the driveway, the engine rumbling below his feet. "So, you hungry?"

"Oh, yeah," you said, "I could totally eat."

Mike smiled. "Good ‘cause I found us the most amazing Italian restaurant, and I think you'll love it,"

Mike was right, of course. You did love it. The atmosphere was perfect, and the scenery was divine, with the sun setting in the distance and the colors it created splashed across the sky. Mike had even thought ahead to get a table right next to the window to give you the perfect view. Unfortunately, the sight from the entrance was the only view you got to see.

When it got to the hostess, it turned out that they had accidentally given his reservation to a family with four kids, and you and Mike were now stuck in between a large family with several children and the bathroom. The food had already been ordered and delivered to your table, but you didn't even get a chance to start your meal before you heard the sounds of a crying baby. And when you looked up, you were faced with a crying child who seemed to be a year or so younger than Abby, sitting on the table in front of you.

You tried to ignore it at first, hoping that they would fall asleep and stop crying, but the baby didn't seem to be willing to stop any time soon, and it seemed you weren't the only one who was annoyed by it. You glanced over at Mike and you realized that he looked about one second away from punching the baby and throwing it across the restaurant.

You decided to take action before he could do that.

"How's... uh, work going?" You asked, trying to make conversation as you sat up a little bit straighter and began to wipe your fingers clean, preparing yourself for whatever came next.

Mike didn't answer, instead choosing to grunt.

You decided to try and lighten the mood just a little bit. "It can't be that bad. You're still alive."

Just as the words left your mouth, the baby started crying even louder. You looked over at the family that was sitting in front of you and noticed that none of them looked like they were planning to do anything about it. Great parenting

"That baby might not be," he grumbled, not even bothering to keep his voice down anymore. "Even Abby and her tantrums don't make me want to run into traffic, and they're on a whole other level,"

"A crying child is not going to make you run into traffic, Mike," you replied.

"It might," he argued. "I might."

You laughed, shaking your head at the man sitting in front of you. "Have you always been this dramatic?"

Mike was quiet for a moment before shrugging and letting out a sigh. His annoyance allowed you to take a look at his features for a moment, something you hadn't really done for a while. Usually, when you two hung out, he was always so busy that you didn't really get to notice the difference in expression and stance he would usually have, but now that you were finally able to look at him, you noticed a slight change in him. He looked... tired, you'd say. Tired, but at the same time, happier than he usually was. You couldn't exactly tell how he was feeling at the time, probably complete annoyance because of the crying baby, but he did look like he was smiling just a bit more than usual.

And you loved seeing it. You loved seeing him happy, even if it wasn't the happiest situation that you two could've been in. You still wanted to see his smile, and you couldn't help but smile yourself at how happy he looked when he was around you, even with all the surrounding annoyance.

"Do you remember," you began, "when we first started dating? You were so nervous, and you were scared that you were gonna mess it up, and I said to you that there was no way you could ever do that, right?"

"I mean, it's not like you were lying," he shrugged, leaning back against his chair, picking up a glass of water, and taking a small sip. "I was a mess."

"Well, you still are a mess, a hot one but still... you got over it, didn't you?" You smiled.

Mike paused for a moment, placing his glass down on the table again. He was silent before he glanced up at you. His eyes were wide, and he almost looked... stunned. He was definitely surprised.

"It's not rhetorical, Mikey, but I'm going to take that as a yes," you continued.

"That was... that was different," he said.

"Well, yeah, of course it was," you replied. "That was a few months ago. Now it's a crying baby who you believe is ruining your life,"

He rolled his eyes and sighed, clearly annoyed by the whole thing. You knew that he wasn't actually upset; however, if he were, you'd have felt him shift in his seat like he always did when he felt uncomfortable or uncomfortable. But he hadn't moved a single bit. He wasn't even fidgeting. He just sat there and kept staring at you.

Mike never said anything, though, and neither did you. You just kept staring at each other, even when the baby eventually stopped crying. For a moment, there was peace, a sort of silent bliss that you couldn't exactly explain, and then the peace was suddenly ruined again.

Mike had wanted a refill of his drink, and when the waiter returned with a pitcher and many other drinks from various tables, the serving plate somehow made its way down Mike's shirt and all over his clothes, the various liquids from water to alcohol all splattered on his clothes. And Mike? Mike didn't even flinch. He closed his eyes and sighed, gritting his teeth and tensing up a bit, and you saw that he was clenching the sides of his chair with his hands, but otherwise, he didn't make any other movements, no reaction at all. Then, to make matters worse, the baby started crying again.

Mike and you both stared at each other again, your eyes wide and your mouths slightly parted. You knew exactly how Mike was feeling, and you wanted nothing more than to do something about it, but you didn't know what to do.

"Mike, do you—" you began, feeling really bad for him.

"I need to... go to the bathroom," he interrupted you, and you nodded in response. He stood up from his seat, walked around you and the other family, and then headed towards the bathroom. You were left to sit in your seat, staring at the family in front of you as they ate and chatted amongst themselves. You didn't say anything, but you weren't exactly happy with what was happening, either.

You glanced over to the bathroom door, hoping that Mike would come out of there soon so you could ask him if he was okay, but you were unable to leave. The waiter came back a few minutes later with a towel to help Mike clean off the liquid from his clothes, and once he had it in hand, you found the strength to leave your seat and follow Mike into the bathroom.

You didn't step inside, however, instead choosing to lean against the wall by the entrance. The bathroom was a lot emptier than the restaurant was, and it seemed a lot quieter, too, the only sound that you could hear coming from the faucet by the sinks. You stared at the door for a moment, just a moment, before calling out to the man inside.

"Mike, are you okay in there?"

It took Mike a moment to respond to you. "Uh... Yeah. I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine," you replied.

"Well, I am," he replied. He sounded annoyed.

"You don't sound like it," you commented.

"Well, what do you want me to say?"

You paused for a moment, glancing around the room as you thought of a response. You decided to just tell him what was on your mind. "Do you want to leave? We can go."

You heard the bathroom door open, and Mike stepped out from it, standing in front of you, his eyes staring straight at your own. He was soaked despite all the paper towels he must've used to dry himself off. You handed him the small towel you'd been handed, and he took it from you with a small nod. He ran it through his shirt and thighs for a moment before looking at you.

"You sure?" He asked with a pinch of hesitation in his voice. He looked nervous. No, he didn't look nervous. He looked... guilty. His eyes were sad, and he seemed worried about something. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words.

You had a feeling what was going on in his mind, so you just took the lead for him. With a smile, you both returned to your seat momentarily to pay the bill and tip the waiter before making your way out to the parking lot. You climbed into the car, and Mike started the engine. He still had a very noticeable frown on his face as he turned to you.

"It looks like it's going to be a great night," he sighed, letting out a heavy sigh. His eyes shifted upwards to the clouds, and you noticed the very visible storm that was brewing in them. "Sorry. I guess I just... It didn't go the way I thought it would."

"It's still early," you replied, placing your hand over his. He looked back at you with wide eyes, clearly not expecting you to be as calm as you were. You smiled at him, squeezing his hand gently. "And I have the perfect idea of what we could do."

He raised a brow at you, his eyes suddenly looking curious. The frown was gone now and replaced with a small, barely visible smile. You had to resist the urge to hug him right then and there.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"You'll find out when we get there," you whispered and smiled, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek. "Just listen to my directions. I'll be your personal navigator."

Your navigator skills were definitely off the charts that night, and even you were surprised you didn't get lost. You made some accidental wrong turns and had to double back once or twice, but other than that, you were able to get you and Mike to your destination just fine. The night sky was still covered with clouds, and there was a very faint sound of thunder in the distance, but you figured you had at least a good hour or so.

The view, though. You couldn't have picked a better spot to have. There was a tree right next to a small, grassy hill that you sat at, the only place where Mike and you could be comfortable while you stared up at the sky. You had Mike's emergency blanket, and he had his hoodie (that might have smelt like utter hell, but he refused to wear anything else after the incident earlier that night), and the stars. It was like the clouds had separated just to show you the beauty of the night sky, and the two of you were lucky enough to witness it. The sun was long gone, and the moon was peeking out from behind the clouds, its bright glow casting a shimmering reflection onto the grass below. It was a moment that you'd never forget.

"How's the date going so far now?" You asked Mike with a smile as you sat next to him. "Think this is an improvement?"

Mike shrugged. "Maybe I should stop planning the dates, and let you plan them from now on."

You smiled at him. "I like it when you plan the dates, Mike."

He frowned for a moment, but the look on his face suggested otherwise. "Really? Because there had been not one good one in the past... I dunno, two years? Even when we were still trying to work out the friendship to the relationship thing."

You shrugged, moving closer to him. "What can I say? I like the surprises, and you never were that spontaneous on your own."

"Is that what you like about me?" He asked. "My non-spontaneity?"

You glanced up at him, smiling as you took in his features again. You loved looking at him. He was handsome. And you loved the look in his eyes. They were filled with adoration, and they were looking straight into yours. He leaned down a bit and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

"You have other qualities, too," you replied. “Good ones.”

"Like what?" He asked, his lips ghosting over your skin as he spoke.

"You make a great cup of coffee," you began, letting out a small giggle as he continued to kiss your forehead, moving slowly down towards your jaw. "And you're good at taking care of Abby. You can be funny if you try hard enough, and you're really cute when you smile."

Mike moved down towards your ear, gently nibbling on the lobe. His breath fanned over your skin, and you couldn't help but lean into him just a little. His hand slipped under your chin and gently pulled your head up, forcing your lips to meet with his in a soft kiss.

The first kiss was always special, in Mike's opinion. You were always so soft, so gentle, but also so firm, so loving. It was one of his favorite feelings, and he was so lucky to have you in his life, he couldn't believe it.

When you pulled away from the kiss, you didn't move too far away from him, resting your head against his shoulder instead. You closed your eyes and let out a sigh of contentment, and he leaned his head against yours, his hand resting gently on your knee as you both gazed at the moonlit sky.

"Mikey?" You asked after a moment, your voice soft and gentle as you spoke. You felt his head move in response, and you felt him take in a deep breath.

"Yeah?" He asked.

You looked up at him, smiling as you did. "I think this is our best one yet."

He didn't say anything for a moment. He stared down at you with his usual blank expression, but after a few seconds, the corners of his lips quirked up, and he was finally able to break out into a smile, one that was so much brighter than the one that he had earlier.

He kissed you again, and you couldn't help but melt into the kiss. Your hands went to his shoulders, and his hands wrapped themselves around your waist as he pulled you closer to him. You never wanted to leave his side.

You loss track of time from there. You both were lost in the moment, in the stars, in the blanket, in each other, and before either of you knew it, you felt the slight raindrops pelt against your skin, and the wind was growing stronger. Your hair whipped in front of your face, and smacked Mike in the cheek, but he didn't seem to care much, too caught up in kissing you.

You eventually pulled away, looking at the man in front of you. "We should... we should get going. You brought the umbrella, right?”

“Yeah, it’s right here," Mike nodded, grabbing it from the other end of the blanket and placing it above the two of you as the raindrops grew heavier. The thunder was louder now, but you and Mike were far too engrossed with each other to really notice it.

At least, not until tragedy struck when he went to pull up the blanket. One big strum of thunder and a burst of wind from above caused Mike to lose his grip on the umbrella, which went flying through the air and out of his grasp. You both watched it as it soared in the air, almost like you were in a daze, and then you realized the horrible thing that had happened.

The umbrella was gone. You and Mike were in the rain, and there was nothing around you to provide you any sort of protection from the downpour. The blanket was soaked within seconds, as were the two of you.

Well, technically, Mike already was.

Mike's smile had disappeared from his face when the umbrella had flown away, and now his frown had returned, only this time, it was quite humorous. He was absolutely dumbstruck, and he was just staring at the umbrella as it flew away into the night. You tried to hold back your laughter, but it was difficult, especially with the look on Mike's face.

“Great. Just great," he grumbled, grabbing your arm while making his way back towards the car. "That's just the icing on the cake."

“It’s like we’re in a rom-com," you commented as you followed him, laughing even more. "You're the oblivious man, I'm the funny girl who helps you figure out your feelings. It’s the climax of the movie, we're both drenched, and then we kiss in the rain,"

Mike glared at you, but the look was not genuine. You could tell, and it only made you laugh even more. "Yeah, yeah, let's just get to the car."

The two of you ran towards the car, and Mike jumped inside the driver's seat. You quickly got into the passenger's side before the door shut closed, and you let out a sigh of relief. You took a moment to catch your breath, and then you turned to Mike, a smile playing on your lips.

“Just so you know, those are my favorite type of rom-coms.”

Mike rolled his eyes. "And just so you know, I hate rom-coms."

You leaned over to kiss his cheek, letting out a soft giggle. "Better buckle up then, Romeo. After we find a towel and get home, we're watching the best rom-com of all time."

He rolled his eyes again, but you could tell that the small smile on his lips was genuine this time. "Let's just go before the car floods,"

You smiled, leaning back in your seat. "Sounds good, honey.”

[ace-sher-bi-john]

While I absolutely love both BBC Sherlock and Sherlock & Co, Sherlock & Co definitely depicts a more healthy relationship between Sherlock and John.

For starters, on BBC Sherlock, Sherlock and John are both co-dependent on each other. John was implied to be suicidal before he met Sherlock. Sherlock relapses without John by his side. Even with Mary to substitute the void in his heart and help him find purpose again, John would never move on from Sherlock. If anything happened to John, it wouldn't end well for anyone, especially Sherlock.

On Sherlock & Co, one of John's only problems after returning home from Ukraine was that he couldn't afford a flat on his own. He seemed to be very excited about life, going on dates, couldn't wait to start his podcast. He was genuinely happy to see Mike.

Sherlock could easily manage on his own without John. He doesn't need to be reminded to eat, he doesn't need an assistant for cases, he doesn't need someone to take care of him. His only problem is that he needs a flatmate.

Although John and Sherlock both need each other to afford rent, they don't need each other for anything else. They want each other's company, they don't need it. They aren't two halves of a whole, they are two wholes coming together. That's how it should be with all healthy relationships, platonic, romantic, queerplatonic, or otherwise.

It also helps a lot that Sherlock isn't a complete jerk on Sherlock & Co. He genuinely treats John and everyone else with a kindness that while I believe BBC Sherlock is capable of it, he rarely showed it. When John's PTSD is triggered, Sherlock asks John if he'd rather sit out that case. He then asks John if he wants to hold hands and discuss his feelings. In part one of the Blue Carbuncle, Sherlock complimented, actually complimented John. That kind of scene just never happened on BBC Sherlock. John was doing his "That was fantastic! You're amazing!" and Sherlock said, "You flatter me, Watson. But you did awesome too! You should have seen the way you did that! It was brilliant!"

John seems like a much more well rounded happy person in general. Just listen to any of his viewer discretion warnings. "Greetings you handsome devil! This episode will contain a bit of the old swearing, a bit of violence, some drug use. Oh and a bit of duck poo!" I hate to make this comparison, due to how much it will sound like an insult. But he acts like the quirky Disney Princess personality that every Disney Princess from the 2010s has and I mean that in the best possible way. It's my favorite thing about him. He's so adorable.

In the Blue Carbuncle, John has a moment similar to ones that you've seen many times before on BBC Sherlock. John has plans that mean he won't be able to help with the case. He is going to Berlin to spend Christmas with his old army friends. It's going to be his first boys' trip in years. But then he gets so sucked into the case that he's almost late for his plane and decides to just stay with Sherlock anyway because the case is just so fascinating he can't leave. On BBC Sherlock, John has abandoned his plans, his job, his girlfriends, for a case because he couldn't stand to be without Sherlock for so long. Also because Sherlock would often crash is dates, ruin his relationships, just so that John could assist him on cases. On Sherlock & Co, Sherlock was happy for John that he was going out with friends, even though it would mean spending the holidays alone. And Sherlock LOVES Christmas, so it's sad to think that he would have to spend it alone.

Where BBC Sherlock would manipulate or guilt John into staying, Sherlock & Co Sherlock let John go and was genuinely fine with going it alone for a week or two, even if it meant being all alone on Christmas.

I love BBC Sherlock, toxic co-dependent relationships and all, and I always will. But Sherlock & Co gives a little something different and I am happy that my boys are happier.

SH: *laughing* What's so funny Watson? JW: *laughing* It's just hearing you say "bell end" SH: Lovely and jubbly

[dukeofdelirium]

“it wouldn’t make sense for Mike to suddenly love Will”

that’s because Mike never ‘suddenly’ fell for Will. he’s been in love with him since before the first episode of the show. we have been shown over and over that their relationship is different from the other boys. Mike cared so much more about Will than anyone else, the entire story hinged on his dedication to finding and saving Will. the entire story was kicked off after we were introduced to their relationship and shown its narrative importance when Will refused to lie to Mike even when Dustin and Lucas told him to.

Mike was always in love with Will. Dustin and Lucas told Mike how he should feel about Eleven, and so he projected his feelings for Will onto her. the way he treated Eleven in s1 is very clearly how he treats Will in s2, which is just more proof that he projected in s1. by the time s3 rolls around, Mike can’t juggle both of these relationships because he should have romantic feelings for Eleven but he really has romantic feelings for Will. and he knows it too, that’s why he tries to avoid him and act completely different. it’s projection and repression. that’s why by s4 he can’t tell El he loves her bc he KNOWS he loves Will and he also KNOWS that he cannot change this or repress it…

I think Mike always has known he has feelings for Will that are stronger than ‘friends’ but I don’t think he consciously recognized this as romantic until s2. the scene at the snowball when he’s sitting alone seemed to confirm my suspicions. I think that was the moment he really knew for sure what it was, and that is why he tried so hard to change it in s3

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

This is perhaps an unpopular opinion at this point, but I do not think that Mike realizes he has feelings for Will.

Not yet, anyway.

To be quite honest, I don't think Mike understands love well enough to know it when he feels it. He grew up in a family with parents who clearly don't love each other. He watched his older sister go out with the popular guy in school, and he probably doesn't even realize that the relationship fell apart because Nancy didn't really love him. He's friends with a group of nerds who don't really get much romantic attention. Ironically, Will gets the most attention from girls, much to his discomfort.

Mike has spent the past three years under the impression that he loves El. She's a girl, she needed him, and he took care of her. Because of that, everyone around him believed Mike had a thing for her, so, naturally, Mike assumed that must be it. What else could it be, right?

However, Will has always been special to Mike. He acts differently around him, and he treats Will more softly than he does anyone else. He's willing to be vulnerable with Will in a way he has trouble doing with anyone else. Will being mad at him hits him in a way that makes him ease up, despite him being snarky and surly with anyone else who he's fighting with (including El). The problem is that Mike never really considered that any of this could mean anything. It must just be a best friend thing. What else could it be, right?

I think the show has done a good job building up Mike's mistaken feelings in both relationships. The question now is how they'll find the time for him to realize his mistake and come to terms with loving a boy, all the while dealing with a superhuman interdimensional monster.

[talesofliia]

Will’s Love for Mike: More than a Crush

Will Byers doesn’t just have a crush on Mike Wheeler. It goes much deeper and is more serious because he’s in love with him. And I’m going to explain why.

1. Behavior

Usually, when someone has a crush, it shows: they are shy, nervous, and excited around the person, they blush, and laugh at their jokes. Will doesn’t exhibit these behaviors (in fact, Mike does sometimes).

When someone is in love, they have accepted their feelings and feel comfortable around that person. They can be themselves without idealizing the object of their affection but accepting them for who they are and loving them unconditionally. That’s exactly how Will is with Mike: he doesn’t act weird around him (if anything, it’s the other way around), he is completely at ease with him. He behaves like Mike’s best friend, caring deeply about their relationship and always being there for Mike.

2. Deep Emotional Connection and Devotion

Mike and Will’s friendship has always been special, and throughout the series, we have seen how deeply they care for each other, what they are willing to do for one another, and how differently they view each other compared to their other friends.

Will has always looked at Mike with lingering awe, as if he were something special and precious (which he is to Will); he has always trusted Mike more than anyone else. He even promised Mike he wouldn’t join another party because no one is better for Will than Mike.

Even when Will moved away, he didn’t look at other boys. He silently and painfully continued to love Mike, pouring his feelings into art so they wouldn’t go to waste. Will consistently proves that Mike is the one for him, his best friend, and the love of his life.

3. Sacrifice

It’s heartbreaking and self-sabotaging, but the depth of Will’s love for Mike leads him to prioritize Mike’s feelings and well-being over his own. He goes to great lengths to make the boy he loves happy, even at his own expense.

Will believes Mike wants to be with El, so he tries to fix their relationship, encouraging Mike with pep talks. Will loves Mike so much that he bottles up his feelings and attributes them to El. He presents his painting – the product of his love – as if it were from El. He pretends that his adoration, his high regard for Mike, and even calling him the heart – that all of this comes from El, all to bring happiness to the boy he loves (because he thinks that’s what Mike wants). If this isn’t the ultimate sacrifice for love, I don’t know what is.

All of this makes it crystal clear: Will Byers loves Mike Wheeler, and it’s more than a fleeting crush. Will’s feelings are deep, tender, and genuine. And they’re not going away easily. It has always been Mike for Will. ❤️

[dollywheeler]

October 23th, 1996

Dear diary,

Let’s see - the last few days have kind of been a blur.

I don’t think I did anything particularly interesting, just following my routine - same old same old. I had to spend all of Sunday catching up on my homework, so nothing special happened there. Mike let me take his old guitar home, though, and the reading for English class is going a lot better now I can alternate chapters of Walden with a moment of playing music. My Oasis tape has been running non-stop.

Cheer practice is going fine - the routines are a bit easier now so I’m having less trouble. I try to practice the harder ones as often as possible, but I still haven’t found a solution for practicing the jumps on my own.

Oh! I almost forgot - On Sunday, I watched Dracula! Danny recommended it and I wanted to watch something while finishing my homework. It was too good - I had to pause it and rush to finish my homework so I could watch it properly; This is exactly why I usually play something I’ve already seen.

I wish we could have watched it together though, but we’ve both been so busy we’ve barely had the chance to spend time together. Whenever he doesn’t have basketbal practice, I have cheer or babysitting, or he has to work at the diner. Mrs. Benson is doing a lot better, at least, so I don’t have to go over as often. Danny joins us for lunch most days, though, and I try to come to the diner as much as possible - it’s nice, just being able to talk to him, even if it’s in snippets between him serving the other customers. Christy doesn’t seem to mind it too much, either, as long as Danny doesn’t leave anyone waiting for too long.

Still, I hope we can go on an actual date again soon.

Mom already hinted at having him over for dinner and I’m… Not sure how to feel about that.

I mean, Danny’s great and I’m sure Dad will like him - I already know mom does because she can’t stop raving about our homecoming pictures. She went to pick them up from the developer on Monday and though I do look terrible in a lot of them, there’s some really cool pictures as well - ANYWAY, what I was trying to say (write? Whatever) was that it feels weird to have him over for dinner with the family.

I was too young to remember the first time Jonathan joined us for dinner - if he ever did before they both went off to college - so it’s not like I can look to my older sister for an example.

Lord knows Mike never brought a girl home.

What I’m trying to say is - I have no idea how Mom and Dad are gong to act. Especially dad - there’s a big enough gap between me and Nancy that I’m sure dad is going to have to get used to his daughter dating all over again.

I might call Nancy and ask for advice - if she has the time, of course. She’s so busy lately running all over the place. When I called on Saturday she said they’d be coming back to the US on Tuesday, but it wouldn’t be the first time their stay got extended. I’ll probably just wait on her to call over the weekend, just in case.

I don’t know what else to write about really, but I’m at the diner and a table in the back is staring at me. I don’t know why - I know their faces but not their names. Pretty sure one used to be the school’s librarian before he retired a few years ago. I see him and the woman he’s talking to around town sometimes, walking dogs, or here at the diner drinking coffee and gossiping as they are now. Most residents always follow everything going on around them, and I’m sure they recognise me in turn from seeing me around one too many times, but today I swear they’ve been looking at me specifically for way too long.

So, I took out my diary and started writing so it seems like I’m not bothered and can’t hear what they’re saying.

It’s strangely unsettling. I don’t know - they seem judgemental, and I feel judged, though for the life of me I can’t figure out why. I’m not doing anything different. I don’t look anything different - I’m not wearing anything special. Sure, I’ve been talking to Danny a lot because it’s so calm today, but it’s not like we’re being particularly loud.

Pretty sure I just heard them say “the Byers kid” - which is strange, because a, I’m not a Byers, and b, I’m not my brother - hell, we don’t even look alike.

I didn’t even realise they knew who I was, let alone who my brother’s friends are. Anyway, it’s weird how hung-up they are about Mike and Will’s return to Hawkins - I mean, it’s been more than two months, and they were only gone for - what? Seven? Ish? Years? I don’t even know.

I guess that’s the one downfall from living in a small town.

Most of the time it’s an advantage - like havig to go to the post office during the summer and getting to chat with Dylan while she works, or feeling completely at home in a diner because you know every face there. It’s nice knowing your neighbours and your neighbour’s neighbours in turn.

Like last week, with Mrs. Benson, I heard soooo many stories about the people around town. And sure, it’s gossip which isn’t always nice, but more often than not it’s just keeping everyone updated. It’s how we all show we care - how else would Mom know who’s in desperate need of a casserole or a plate of cookies?

That sounds like a hyperbole or whatever - Mike would probably know the perfect term - but it’s more relevant than one might think.

Plenty people don’t know to ask for help - like Mrs. Benson - and they’re just waiting on people to offer it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from mom, is that more often than not overbearing is just bearing enough.

Anyway, Daniel and his mom are new to town too, but no one’s talking about that anymore either. Now I think about it, it is weird that people seem more hung-up about them than Danny. I mean, Danny and his mom are total outsiders - even if they only came from a few towns over - but at least Mike and Will are known strangers. They came back, which isn’t unheard of.

Mr. Howard, our PE teacher, for example, moved back in his thirties to take care of his ailing father. His father is still kicking around, by the by, even though he’s been back for almost twenty years now. Anyway, even though he’d been gone for seventeen years, everyone acted like he’d simply never left.

Max’ mom, on the other hand, still often gets reminded that she’s not from here, though it’s less obvious because the residents of the trailer park are used to people coming and going more than Suburbians, and also because she at least was here for ’86.

Now I think about it, it’s bothering me more and more.

I’ve always felt like I’m missing something - it’s often clear mom and Mike are talking around me - but I always just assumed it’s them being weird about Mike’s degree. That’s the one thing dad brings up sometimes when it’s about Mike, right before mom sends him a warning glare with pointed eyes at me. I don’t know - I get dad wanted us to do something practical, or at least, Mike, because dad has plenty of opinions on Nancy’s career as well. But he’s from a previous time, and honestly why Nancy wants to work so bad, I don’t understand.

Anyway, this took a turn.

I really keep getting carried away with these things.

The people are still there, but they seemed to have moved on conversationally, and it’s about time I head home anyway. I’m just going to say goodbye to Daniel and get going so I’m back in time for dinner.

Love, Holly

[sameschmidtdiffname]

feeling a bit weird asking this request since i haven't actually seen anyone write such a thing, but i'd like to ask for something about the parent figure!mike (NOT SMUT OFC), maybe something he's the reader's father or brother or something, if it's not something you could write just ignore !!! (i'm also not a native speaker so i apologize if it sounds impolite i always have this problem :/)

Girl have you read my fics?? Do NAWT come on here talking about feeling weird for a request when I have written shit that's sending me to super hell with Jensen Ackles or whoever played the angel guy from Supernatural. (I hope that joke made sense, I'm not in that fandom </3)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this!! Fresh off the press for you pookie <3 (BTW, your English js great and you weren't demanding at all!! Seriously, don't feel bad 😊)

Same Shit, Different Schmidt

Dad! Mike & Gender Neutral! Reader

(This gif always sends me, I'm sorry)

Summery: You are a stubborn ass and Mike is not here to put up with that shit. Where'd you get this attitude, anyways? Is it so hard to just listen?

Tags: No use of Y/N, Reader is Mike's child, this is lowkey a sequel to 'What's One More?' but that is absolutely not required to read this, sickness, reader almost passes out, slight angst, Mike takes care of reader, Mike has a come to Jesus moment, mentions of arguing, injury, underage drinking, Abby and Mike go at it at one point, just a cute lil drabble :)

Notes: it feels illegal to post something so short. Is this allowed?? Anyways, this was so cute to write! Definitely a new approach. I hope you guys like this! Thanks for the request anon, I always love getting them 💗

▪︎◇{¤♧■♧¤}◇▪︎

"I'm fine," you groaned emphatically, trying to to rise from the bed, musty from your body's sweat during the night.

"You are not fine, do not bullshit me," Mike scolded. His hands pressed you back onto the bed, his scowl growing as he feels your temperature through your moist shirt. "When did this start?"

"I told mom my throat hurt last night and she gave me some ibuprofen. It's seriously just a cold," you said, trying one more time to rise from the bed.

"You always get a sore throat before you get sick, have since you were a kid. When did the fever start?" His hand feels freezing against your clammy forehead, making you shy away to avoid the chills that threaten you.

"Not hot."

"You want me to call your mom so you can gaslight her, too?" His tone is firm and threatening. "Is there something you're trying to get away with here or...?"

"I have tech tonight for my show, I can't miss," you finally admit. You open your mouth to continue, but Mike quickly cuts you off.

"No. Out of the question," he said.

"Dad, I'll get in trouble-"

"You will get everyone else sick and then what? I said no," he said firmly. But when he sees the way you sink into the bed, eyes sad and finally accepting the situation, he thinks of your mother acting in a similar manner or Abby when she was your age with the same attitude. It makes him relent, pressing his lips tight together. "What do you need me to do?" He asked, voice softer as he strokes your cheek. Your eyes brighten for a moment, a smile breaking out. "You're not going, I'm just asking what I could do to help."

You sink into the bed once more, crossing your arms.

"My director is gonna hate me," you mumble.

"I will deal with her, or she will deal with me. I promise you one's better than the other," he said. At that you crack a smile, finally looking at him.

"Mom's not gonna be pleased either," you said.

"Mom's not gonna let you go either," he said. "I'm getting the thermometer and then I'm moving you to the living room so I can watch you better. You get control of the TV as your consolation prize."

You twirl your finger in the air, rolling your eyes as emit a mocking 'yay,' glaring at him as he shoots the same glare down at you, walking out of the room and slipping his phone out of his pocket to call your mother.

"How upset are they?" She asked on the other side of the phone. He could hear the office chatter going on around her as he searched through the cabinets for the supplements they kept in stock.

"They're not thrilled. Not planning my death yet, but it's coming," Mike huffed. "Is it elderberry that helps with sore throats?"

"Elderberry makes it worse after you get sick, helps before. Don't give them that," she said. There's a slight pause before she adds "You realize this attitude is inherited?"

"Oh," he groaned, sucking on his teeth. "I wasn't gonna throw you under the bus like that."

"I helped raise Abby, do not pin this on me," she laughed.

"I don't deny sickness," Mike said.

"I can name five seperate instances where you did," she countered. Mike froze for a moment, trying to remember. "Just go easy on them. Remember you're dealing with your kid."

"And yours," he countered.

"Supposedly," she teased.

"I'm pretty sure that was you I knocked up."

"But are you sure?"

"Well, there was that one time with your mom."

She laughed. "Have them text me when they can. I'll deal with director, she knows me better."

"Thanks. She terrifies me. Kinda get why they don't wanna miss," Mike admitted. With a quick laugh and a quicker goodbye, Mike clicks off the call, slipping the phone back into his pocket. He gathered the vitamins in a small cup, grabbed the other needed items and made his way back to the room that used to house his little sister.

"Okay, Mom's dealing with director and is willing to grab dinner of your choice if you'll-" Mike trails off at the sight of your empty bed, worry prickling through and tainting the annoyance rising in his chest. He calls your name, turning to look for you before his ears tune in on the shower running in the bathroom. He sighs, placing the items on your bedside table and making his way to the living room. All is well until about ten minutes after the water shuts off, when he heard a small but sure 'thud' ring from the room.

"Honey?" He called. Nothing.

He rises from his chair, his mind trying to remind himself to stay calm and not jump to its automatic thoughts of harm and anxiety as he walked quickly to the door.

"If you don't answer I'm coming in," he warned. The quiet groan on the otherside is all he needed to quickly open the unlocked door, trying not to panic as he catches sight of you curled up on the floor with your head between your knees.

"I'm fine," you said quietly. "Got dizzy." Your clothes are thrown on haphazardly and it's clear how disoriented you are. Your hair doesn't even look properly washed.

Mike's arms are comforting, familiar and protective as he carefully lifts you up, taking you to the couch as though you weigh nothing to him. When his mind is racing like this, you may as well not.

"What were you thinking?" He asked in a panicked voice. "I told you you weren't going."

"My director hates me and tech is like, our biggest practice. I can't miss," you insisted, barely able to stand the light shining through the open windows. The couch is cool against your skin, the old leather offering relief. Mike had brought it home a few years back, a surprise he'd found at a thrift store with your help. Still pricey but a Christmas gift for everyone in the house. Your mother shook her head as she finally agreed maybe the couch that was as old as her needed to be replaced.

"Your mom is dealing with her and she's gonna deal with you next if you don't listen to either of us," Mike said. He ran back to your room, collecting the items and returning to your side before you could even respond. "Can you just let us take care of you?"

Oh. Oh. Fine, okay. There it is. He hears it now, that point your mother had just been making.

As the thermometer takes longer than he'd like to beep, he sighs at the sight of you looking like death on the couch. "You get this attitude from me," he finally sighed. You raise your brow quizzically, waiting for him to continue. A soft noise emits from the device. Mike takes it from your mouth and scowls at the number that flashes back at him. He hands you a now room temperature cup of throat coat tea with three ibuprofen to help with the fever before he takes your hand.

"Did I tell you about the time your mother had to drag me to the emergency room for stitches on my forehead?" He asked, smiling. You snort, taking another sip of your drink. "It happened when you were little. I don't even think you were two. Abby was going out with this idiot and figured out how to take out the screen in her window so she could sneak out without any of us knowing. This girl was bad news, I mean-"

"Aunt Abby?" You asked.

"What? No. No, the girl she was going out with, Lisa Browning. Had her come home with a belly button piercing once, I wasn't happy about that. Anyways, Abby decided that she was going to this party one night and I'd found her bed empty halfway through the night while I was going to check on you. Well, I decided I was gonna wait for her in her room with the lights off until she got home. So I sat in front of her window and eventually got tired, so I shut my eyes. Figured it couldn't hurt. Took a couple hours, but eventually your mother woke up and my side of the bed was empty and she heard this loud as fuck noise from your aunts room. This is like four in the morning, mind you," he said. "So she jumped out of bed and heard your aunt yelling, saw some guy in dark clothes on the floor, open window and the lights are off, and she's still wiping sleep out of her eyes."

"Oh no," you groaned.

"Oh yes. Grabbed some metal Eiffel Tower thing on Abby's desk and just swung at my head. Hurt like a bitch," he laughed, you joining in as much as you could without hurting your throat. "It was a good hit. I think she realized it was me when I grabbed her ankle and hollered her name cause she stopped right after that. Wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't stop bleeding."

"So did Abby get in trouble?" You asked.

"Are you kidding? I was even more pissed, I chased her down the hallway after her girlfriend climbed in and fell on top of me. I was ready to kill her. Your mother had to drag me and her into the car, go back and grab you and deal with us screaming at each other all the way to the hospital. Not that I wanted to go, I was fine with just pressing a dishcloth to the thing and carrying on with my plan to rip my sister a new one. She had to threaten us both to actually get me inside, and I only conceded because I was too dizzy to object by that point. I think the nurses assumed she was insane. I mean, kid on her hip, dressed in pajamas with some drunk teenager bickering with a guy bleeding from his head at the crack of dawn. I'm surprised no one called the cops. They did have to almost seperate Abby and I, though. Which just upset me more."

"How did they get you to calm down?" You asked.

"Your mother handed you to me while she walked Abby to a bathroom so she could take a go at her. And you were all upset anyways because I wasn't paying attention to you and you didn't understand why the nurses were fuckin' with me or why I was upset. Once I had you in my arms I refocused, calmed down a good bit. Someone brought me a book to read you and we got to focus on that while they prepped me for stitches," he said the last part softly. "I was so glad when Abby got out of her teen rebellion phase."

"She ruined mine," you joked.

"Yeah. She used pretty much every trick in the book, so we were ready for you. Sorry," he said.

"It's fine, I don't like parties."

"I don't either."

Mike's phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked it, typing a quick response before refocusing on you. "Your mother wants to know what you're thinking for dinner," he said.

"Chinese?" You asked.

"That comes from your mom's side," he smiled. "She'll be pleased."

¤▪︎{♧}▪︎¤

Short but sweet. This was a fun one :)

Taglist:

@jhutchissupercool @gh0u1ishly @joshhutchersons-slut @schmidtsbimbo @sugarevans @wompwompwomp57 . Thank you for your support! <3

Masterlist

[starry-bugs]

roier spent the week cellbit was missing in an absolute frenzy. cellbit's a weird guy, he comes and goes and maybe he just had a job call last minute? he'll turn up, he always does. but then one day turns to two to three, and nobody's heard from him. not forever, or felps, or pac and mike. not even richarlyson knows where he is, and he was with cellbit last.

all richas says is that they were out having some father-son time, and the next thing he knew he was being dropped off at his pai forever's without cellbit. he can't remember what happened.

and that's how roier knows the federation took him. cellbit wouldn't leave without letting anyone know, and he wouldn't leave richarlyson alone without making sure one or his other dads picked him up.

so he plots, and by "he" I mean the others do the planning, roier's too busy blaming himself for not sticking closer to cellbit and trying to keep himself from a bloodthirsty rage at the thought of him in danger. in the end, the plan isn't even that important because roier can't take it any longer and storms the damn building and everyone else has to follow

and in the end, he gets cellbit back, and it's great! the only problem is the aura of wrong, wrong, wrong, danger, danger, danger that seems to cling to cellbit like a second skin. and the way he seems sickly and clingy and paler than usual. his teeth are a bit sharper, there's white in his hair, he can't remember what they did to him, and he's acting different.

(cellbit doesn't like looking at his reflection those first few nights, and he closes his eyes when roier helps him bathe later the night of the rescue. and roier doesn't know what to think of or how to tell him about the long, jagged scar running down his torso)

[lesbianrobin]

how st characters would run the mile

mike starts out sprinting but he gives up on that after about twenty seconds. then he alternates between the world's most pathetic little jog and walking. he acts like he's just not trying but he absolutely is trying and whenever he stops jogging and walks it's because he cannot keep running or he'll die. he finishes last and collapses on the track and contemplates breaking his own ankle on purpose the next time they have to run the mile.

dustin mostly jogs it and he finishes somewhere in the back of the pack but he's not last. although if mike is struggling enough he'll hang back and walk with him in solidarity. he doesn't really care about his time or anything as long as he gets his participation points.

lucas gives it his all and properly runs because he really wants to beat his previous mile time. he finishes just under five minutes and then he chills out on the bleachers and claps and whoops whenever anyone else finishes.

will runs until he doesn't feel like it anymore and then he just jogs until he gets bored and then he runs again. he finishes somewhere in the middle of the pack and sits with lucas to cheer when other people finish except while lucas cheers for everyone, will only cheers for people he likes.

max walks the mile. she could run if she wanted to and she could probably finish somewhere in the five to six minute range but she refuses to run around in circles for some gym teacher. she still finishes before mike.

el runs her first lap and then she gets bored and lonely so whenever she comes up on max she just stops running and walks the rest of the mile with her. they have a great time. once again they both finish before mike. el cheers for him when he's done.

erica does not run the mile. she and her friends hide out under the bleachers if they can or walk the mile and talk shit about people if they can't.

argyle obviously walks the mile and hangs out with all of the gays and goths who are also walking the mile and they talk about life and love and different strains of weed. he loves it he's just hanging out.

jonathan walks the mile. in freshman year he actually kinda tried but he heard some of the jocks laughing as he jogged past them on the bleachers and so he decided to simply never try again because it was too embarrassing so he's walked ever since. they weren't even actually laughing at him they were having an entirely unrelated conversation but jonathan does not know that and refuses to run in public unless it's for his life.

steve runs the mile like he is trying to qualify for the olympics. he is always among the first five people to finish and he is always aiming to beat his last time. everybody thinks he's such an asshole showoff but after class he gives some of the slower kids tips on how to build their stamina and tells them they did a great job and nobody's ever sure if he's being sincere or if it's a bullying tactic. it isn't a bullying tactic he just genuinely wants to help people run better.

robin does her best to run the mile but by the time she's halfway through she's just out of breath and exhausted and gives up on the whole running thing and walks the rest of the way. she finishes in the back of the pack but she's okay with it because she knows she could have done better if she really tried.

nancy runs most of the mile with brief walking breaks when needed. she's among the fastest girls in school and she finishes near the front of the pack every time. she acts like she doesn't care about her mile time but one year some girl she hates beats it by six seconds and nancy genuinely wants to kill her for a moment. besides that she actually kind of likes running the mile because she beats out a lot of the guys and it makes her feel like a god.

eddie has never attended a gym class in his life.

[apomaro-mellow]

S1E10: Bottle Episode

S1E09

Lucas was the one in front of a whiteboard now, ruler in his hands as he paced back and forth in the Hopper’s living room. His friends all sat, attention on him.

“The day is nearly upon us. Our first day of high school is in just a week. And if we want any hope of surviving, we need to be prepared. I give you, Operation COOL”, he used the ruler to point to the words on the whiteboard.

“And what does ‘COOL’ stand for?”, Mike asked, arms crossed.

“See? That’s the first step! It doesn’t stand for anything. It just has to be cool. Acronyms are not cool”, Lucas said.

Dustin shook his head. “So many badass organizations would beg to differ.”

“It sounds like you want us to act like the guys who have been bullying us all our lives”, Will pointed out.

“I wanna give us a chance of surviving. I’m the only black kid for miles, Mike can’t shoot a ball, Dustin’s got that teeth thing, El’s sheltered, you’re a wimp, and Max is…Okay Max might be fine in high school.”

“Nice save”, Max said, though her glare didn’t soften.

“But the rest of us are gonna need a plan if we want any hope of getting through the next four years”, Lucas pressed.

“We could ask for advice”, El suggested. “Steve is the coolest person I know.”

Max scoffed. “That can’t be true. He’s your brother.”

El’s brow furrowed. “Brothers can’t be cool?”

“Erica thinks I’m a loser”, Lucas confirmed.

Mike raised his hand. “Nancy only talks to me when she needs to. Holly still likes me though.”

“And you know how I feel about Billy”, Max said. “Brothers are the least cool thing and you should never take their advice on anything.”

As if on cue, Steve came in through the front door, wearing a sandwich costume. “Yeah, yeah, don’t get used to it. I’m quitting this job as soon as school starts”, he said as he crossed over into the kitchen. Then he popped his head back out. “Here’s a tip. Cool people don’t need to devise a whole plan to be cool.”

“Oh what does he know?”, Lucas said when Steve fully went into the kitchen.

“Yeah he looks a few buns short of a baker’s dozen”, Dustin snickered at his own joke just as Lucas used the ruler to point to rule 4 of cool: no dumb jokes or puns.

------------------------------

Robin took a deep shuddering breath. It was all she could do to keep from losing her head.

“We’re gonna be okay, right?”, Will asked.

“Ye-ah”, Robin said, her voice a little shaky. “We’re just stuck in an elevator at the mall. No big deal.”

Robin was never supposed to be in this position. This was supposed to be Steve’s, or Jonathan’s, or Nancy’s, or even Eddie’s gig. But she had tagged along with the mall excursion and at some point the group split and when it was time to gather back around, she had run into Will at the pretzel place and when they checked their watches they realized it was time to meet the others in the parking garage.

So on the elevator they went and it was then that it decided to stop on them, frozen in place. Both had already tried prying the door open to no avail. If Robin was with anyone else, she might’ve freaked out by now. But she was with a kid, so she had to keep a cool head.

“How long until you think they notice we’re not there?”, Will asked.

Robin shrugged. “Shouldn’t take ‘em too long. No way they leave without us, right?”

“Right”, Will agreed.

She sighed and sat down on the floor, her back to the wall. She didn’t want to think about it but Will’s question got her mind reeling. So she tried to change the subject.

“So, you guys are starting high school soon, right? That’s gotta be…exciting.” She inwardly winced, thinking how much she sounded like an out of touch aunt.

“I guess”, Will said, going to sit on the other side. “I’m not really looking forward to four more years of the same thing though.”

“Who said it’s gonna be the same thing? It’s high school, you can reinvent yourselves. You should’ve seen Eddie back in middle school.”

Will pulled his knees up to his chest. “Some things you can’t change about yourself. But I…”, he let out a breath. “When I get bullied the stuff they say aren’t…untrue.”

Robin frowned. “Why? What are they saying?” She had a feeling. A hunch really. But she’d never talked one on one with one of Steve’s sister’s friends about their middle school drama. She knew a thing or two about certain traits that couldn’t be changed though.

“I…forget it”, Will sighed. “Can we just sit here while we wait for a rescue? Or for this thing to kill us?”

“Hey, we’ve gotta stay positive, don’t we? ‘Killed by elevator’ would be a really undignified obituary.” When Will laughed at that, she felt emboldened. “Like, seriously. You might as well say ‘here lies Robin Buckley - died after getting hit with a clown car’.”

“Elevator is better than a clown car”, Will snickered. “But yeah, point made. What floor are we on anyway? Would it even actually kill us?”

“Ah, well now you’re getting into the eternal debate. What’s worse? Dying or having all your bones broken?”

“Do I get to choose my nursemaid?”, Will asked.

“Nope, no pretty nurses for you. It’s gonna be someone like, someone like Mike. Good luck with that.” Robin laughed, likening any care from Mike to being nursed by a flamingo.

But then Will didn’t laugh louder or snort or look annoyed at his friend’s expense. It was a quick moment, but Robin caught the hint of pink on Will’s cheeks. He turned his face away and there was a thick tension in the air all of a sudden. Robin thought of herself at that age. She often wondered how it would’ve been if she’d found anyone like herself that young.

“Hey um, so like, no one ever outright bullied me, because I’m a badass. But sometimes I’d get excluded from stuff”, she said.

“...Like what?”, Will ventured.

“The girls in my neighborhood would have their little dress up parties. And I thought they looked like princesses right out of a fairy tale. They’d want me to dress up with them. But I didn’t want to be a princess with them. I…I wanted to be Prince Charming.”

Will’s eyes got a little wide. “Oh.”

Robin laughed a little. “Yeah, oh. After a while, the other girls realized I didn’t wanna wear dresses or make up with them. No one ever said it to my face. And no one ever really found out, but it felt like some people knew, ya know?”

Will nodded. “I know. So you’re…?”

“Yeah”, Robin confirmed.

“Does anyone else know?”

“Steve.”

“Steve?!”

“I hear them!”, Steve’s voice suddenly came from the other side of the elevator doors. “Robin!? Will?!”

“Will!”, Jonathan shouted.

“We’re here! We’re in here!”, Robin called back, suddenly on her feet.

“I think Steve’s getting an ax!”, Dustin yelled.

“I’m not-Where would I even get an ax? You guys hang tight, someone professional is on the way.”

“Roger that”, Robin smiled, relief filling her system.

Will looked relieved too, like the weight of the world had all of a sudden lifted from his shoulders. Maybe high school wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Part 11

[lunabug2004]

You said that according to you there is a way to make Mileven stay together and have all the characters have a good arc at the end of the show. Could you develop that? cause in my opinion if Mike's arc is about falling in love , changing his personality after meeting a girl and at the end being the protective paladin to "fix" his bad behaviour then it's really bad writing (coming from a straight person)

I'm going to be completely honest here, which I hope is what you want lol, I do think I say this (sans the "good arcs" part bc I don't think I've ever said that there's a way to make Mileven happen where all the characters have good arcs) to more-or-less make myself feel better bc I have so much Byler doubt (& Mike love) so yeah, take this as you will, this is just what my brain has come up with as an arc(?) I could mostly cope with. I mean, there's a reason I put "(mostly) happy" but yes, I'll try to expand.

I love Mike and I have a feeling I will continue to love Mike whether Mileven or Byler is endgame. This is purely because I do not believe Mike is a bad person or bad character just bc he's made some bad decisions/said some things he (canonically) regrets. I don't think Mike would be a protective paladin to simply "fix" his "bad behavior". While I do agree that this wouldn't be the best writing choice, I think, in-context, he would be trying his best to keep everyone he loves alive. He is an extremely traumatized teenage boy whose biggest fear is losing those he loves. He has been smack-dab in the middle of the action until s4. Finn Wolfhard himself has said Mike is depressed and pushing everyone away bc of it.

Anyways, all of this to say that I don't think it'd be too farfetched to say all of his "bad behavior" is simply untreated trauma symptoms. And yes, you could say something about other characters being traumatized and them not acting like Mike, but trauma, and this is a fact, effects everyone differently. One person may lean into their life before going through said trauma, like Will in s3, while another may block it out, like it's shown with El in s4, and another may completely change themselves while being stuck in a loop of wanting those he loves close to him but also wanting to keep them at a distance bc he is so terrified of losing them. Dr. Owens even says in s2 that a sign of PTSD is change in personality and lashing out, which we see both in Mike. Plus all the parallels bt him and Max in s4, it's safe to say this boy is struggling mentally.

I do think it would make sense, when we finally get Mike's POV in s5, for a lot of his controversial moments to be fueled by his mental health struggle. Now, do I think this is an excuse? Not necessarily, but it does make sense, and as far as I know, anytime Mike's actively made anyone upset he's apologetic (like I said earlier, lashing out). I believe that if the show solely focuses on Mike's mental health issues, then Mileven wouldn't be out of the question.

I do want to add that this is not how I want the story to go, I would much rather his story go the Byler route, but I've said before that his character is not solely dependent on either Byler or Mileven, and I still stand by that. He should not simply be seen as a 'romantic interest' character bc he is more than that and he has his own problems (that we aren't necessarily shown) that have nothing to do with who he's in a romantic relationship with.

Now, again, this is probably mostly just something I've convinced myself I'd be alright with, but I am aware that this in and of itself would be boring and not very good writing. I also do not know, in this case, what would happen on the Byler side of things, this why I say "(mostly)". I am fully a Byler shipper and would prefer Byler endgame to anything really, but I'm a Mike-stan first and foremost.

Sorry if this wasn't too clear, I feel like I just rambled and repeated myself a lot. Thanks for the ask, though! And pls if you or anyone else has questions about anything I said, pls ask me! Trust me, I know this isn't foolproof and I'm probably just dumb 😂

TLDR: I think it's possible they could go more towards untreated PTSD and trauma/mental health related route for Mike in a way that would make Mileven possible. Doesn't mean I'd think it's necessarily good writing, but I could see it going that way.

[thestrangestthing89]

Will manifesting Eddie, Billy, and El.

There is a lot more to say about El being a manifestation compared to Eddie and Billy. She got the most screen time of the three. Brenner's attitude towards El: We see that Brenner favors El above all the other kids in the lab, to the point where they are jealous of El. But we aren't given a reason why. In fact, we are told a lot of reasons why she isn't special - she isn't the most powerful or the most skilled, she is the weakest. He doesn't coddle her either and is instead cruel pretty much every time she can't do something to his liking. She disappoints him, yet he seems to have high hopes for what she can do. His behavior is very manipulative and he's kind when he needs her to do something and cruel when she doesn't do it right. He flatters her with "only you can save them" nonsense when we plainly see that she struggles to save them. We know in S1 and S2 it wasn't just her that saved Will, it was the whole group. In S3 and 4 it not only was the whole group, but El fails to save anyone. She does a lot wrong. But she is constantly told she is special and their only hope. It doesn't add up with what we actually see happening. And this manipulation (by both Brenner and Owens) isn't just when she is the only kid in the lab. He acted like this when there were many kids. So he could have relied on them instead of her. We know he didn't tell her the full story about Henry. He admits to cherry-picking memories. I think what we are being shown here is more El's origin story as it relates to Will. These aren't her memories, which is why she doesn't remember them. She doesn't have them. But Will does and I think he's repressing them (or as I said in my post about Billy, he's putting all of the things he doesn't like about himself onto other people). I think Brenner is interested in her because out of all the other kids in the lab, she was created in a different way - by Will. If she ends up being powerful that means he can create more superheroes through Will.

So in going along with my theory about Eddie and Billy, I think El ends up being related to his childhood trauma. The first thing that happened to him that led to everything else. I think this is related to his father given how much Brenner resembles Lonnie and his relationship with Will (at least what we know of it so far). In this case, Will manifests El through the abuse he suffered from Lonnie as a child. We know Lonnie called Will gay slurs and it's been heavily hinted that there is physical abuse and sexual abuse as a part of this (like Brenner and El). We don't know when Lonnie left or what happened here exactly, but I would guess something significant happened when Will was 7 since that was the age El was in those memories in S4. I think El is a reference to parts of Will's psyche he is struggling to accept. Like Eddie is his ego and Billy is his id, El is his superego - the hyper-vigilant, rational side to him. El likes rules and structure. She needs things to be orderly so she can understand them. She punishes the bad guys because she is the good guy. It's a simplistic superhero narrative and one that a child would come up with when they are distressed. He created a superhero to save him, like he created Billy to put his MF trauma on, and Eddie to put his insecurities about being different than everyone else on. That beings said, I think that once these manifestations are created they are real people with their own thoughts and actions. But I think Will can unintentionally manipulate things when he feels strong emotions - ie he gets jealous of all the time Mike and El are spending together so he has El dump his ass and run off with Max.

Will and El's relationship: For 2 people whose stories are so closely tied together, they have very few interactions. El is very determined to save him though, even though she doesn't know him. And there is still that unanswered question from S1 - El recognized Will's picture but we don't know how. I think this goes back to when Will originally manifested her. I think she remembers a little bit about this but not all of it. She doesn't know enough to know that Brenner's memories about Henry are fakes. Throughout the entirety of S1, El is mistaken for Will. They are interchangeable. Hopper thinks he's chasing ghosts. It's interesting to note here that El's limited verbal skills prevent her from explaining herself and her relationship to Will. Much in the same way that El's mother, Terry, can't communicate with words. A similar thing that Will struggles with in S2 when he's possessed. He uses his art because he can't figure out how to describe how he's feeling verbally. I think El, and by extension Terry, are representing how Will is struggling to talk about his trauma, in this case about Lonnie. They don't talk because he isn't ready to talk about this yet. There is so much that could be said about the comparisons between Will and El but here are a few: - There is a moment early on in the season when Mike is in front of the D&D board and you see the little wizard piece meant to represent Will the Wise. The piece is facing off against the 3 headed dragon and is surrounded by what looks like other monsters. The very next scene is El at Benny's facing off against the lab guys and Brenner. She gets surrounded by them and is able to escape. - El being afraid of small spaces is something that doesn't come up again. She doesn't want to be in the closet in Mike's room. This obviously has a lot of subtext for Mike's sexuality. But this scene happens when Jonathan shows up at Lonnie's and checks the trunk of the car for Will, heavily implying Will was put in there by Lonnie at one point. It makes me wonder if we will see Will struggling with this at some point (and Mike comforting him about it). - When El checks in on Will in the void at the end of the season, he's at Castle Byers in the UD. Will isn't surprised to see El. As far as we know, he never saw her before. But this random girl showing up and telling him to hold on a little longer doesn't surprise him. And it's not because he's barely conscious. The next scene with Will he is singing and he is able to sit up and he's alert. So he notices. They both know each other.

- Will and El both die at the same time. Will in the UD, and El sacrifices herself to the demogorgon. At the hospital, Dustin is telling Will that El is "basically a wizard". Will the Wise is a wizard. - At the end of the season, Hopper gets in a car outside the hospital and goes back to the lab. It's implied in S2 that he made a deal to keep things in town quiet for them. But Hopper keeps an awfully close eye on both Will and El all season. It makes me wonder if he was told to keep an eye on El for Will's sake. I think he knows more about what happened with Will then he's letting on. Hopper's relationship with El/Will is very interesting. He's the protector. He goes out of his way to not only keep them both safe but keep them separated. He is the only one of the characters in S2 who knows everything that is going on. He knows the lab is the only place that can figure out what is happening with Will, so he keeps Joyce in Hawkins. He knows El isn't safe from the lab if she leaves the cabin so he keeps her inside. He knows the town isn't safe from the lab so he keeps secrets about the tunnels. He keeps El hidden from everyone even though she seems to know something is going on with Will all season because she was spying. Out of all the characters, I think it's Hopper who already knows everything that is going on with Will and El. There is also the tie in with his daughter. He has flashbacks to Sarah dying the entire time he's looking for Will in S1. There are so many comparisons to be made between Will, El, and Sarah. I have seen people suggest that Sarah is a fake memory like the fake memories of Henry that Brenner showed El in S4. I think this is possible. In that case, I think it's Will who likely has the real father/child relationship with Hopper and not El or Sarah. He's the anti-Lonnie. The father that actually protects him and takes care of him. And I think there is a strong possibility that Hopper has a lot of this figured out already. At least up to the point where he knows Will is manifesting things (likely not about Sarah). I think he wouldn't tell Joyce about something like this because it's tied to his trauma with Lonnie and I think it's been made clear that Joyce doesn't know much about this. So Hopper does what he can to protect people without giving too much away. And he knows the lab is the best place to keep an eye on Will even though he doesn't trust them, because they know about where El comes from. It's a good way to keep an eye on everything and everyone.

In S2 there are a couple things to note: - El gets "rebirthed" through a tigers paw painted on the wall of the school. Tigers are frequently associated with Will. He brings her back to life when he is struggling with his memories of the UD. - When Mike is being interrogated by the government about El's whereabouts the woman tells him "the stories she told you aren't true". On the surface of course this is meant to get him to not trust El. But nothing is ever as it seems on the surface with this show. This line combined with the many references to El being compared to Will, and Max asking her if she is real are meant to point out the obvious - El isn't real. She is part of Will. What she says isn't true - a theme that continues through S4. El frequently lies. Oftentimes unknowingly/unintentionally. But it's still meant to indicate that what she says shouldn't be taken as truth. S3 is seriously wild. I don't even know where to start with this except that I think it needs it's own post because I think everything in this season is happening in Will's head. Or at the very least, is all being heavily influenced by his strong, uncontrollable teen hormones and angst. S4 is the first time we actually see El and Will interacting regularly. And it's really not much. They spent 6 months living in the same house but they aren't close. El gets bullied in school, which is a thing that usually happens to Will. But here she takes up the role of protector again and keeps him safe from the bullies. They don't even notice him because she is there. She's like a shield. I think El's separate storyline in S4 is partly due to Will getting more confident and partly him freeing her from this need to save him. He is becoming stronger on his own now. I don't think it's a coincidence that we see El have the same hair as Will and wear his clothes at this time. She also spends this season finding out info on their past at the lab. I think they are morphing into one person. Will is getting stronger and is more ready to take on his past in a way that he wasn't before. But he is still using El to confront these things. I think Will becoming more confident and confronting his past will coincide with him becoming more powerful and El becoming less centered in saving him (and everyone else). Like Billy and Eddie, I think El will eventually be killed off (like S1) or become a part of him in some way. I am reminded of what Henry said to baby El after he killed all the kids in the lab - all of those people he killed became a part of him and he could still hear them in his head. So I think in this way, El, Billy, and Eddie, still exist as they are a part of Will. But I don't think it's a coincidence that El doesn't seem to be in the next season much. Will doesn't need her to save him anymore.

[gz-missfit]

So....Tazercraft again huh? /aff

I could go on for a bit about how Pac e Mike behaved during that kidnapping, how much their reactions spoke volumes about their trauma and how fucking good these 2 are at breaking people's hearts while teasing at this situation multiple times during the stream (also having heard some of their voice acting of a lot older videos just how fucking good Pac has gotten at acting like Jesus christ my heart). But I feel like a good amount of posts in the tags have summed up everything I would've wanted to say amazingly and I definitely recommend scrolling through them.

I wanna talk about something else tho. Richas. Moreso his relationship with Pac.

Richas has said before that Pac e Mike are his chill dads, the ones that have always let him get away with shit or encouraged his shenanigans but he still has always carried different relationships with each of them individually. He's a bit more distant from Mike due to the time where Mike isolated himself away from Richas in the fear of Richas loosing his last life because of him. Richas knows Mike is dangerous, he knows Mike's a bit unhinged and I'd like to think that unhinged almost destructive chaos is what Richas got from Mike. (Taking for example yesterday when he warned Bad that Mike is the one that can kill him) Richas knows Mike is smart and even tho he doesn't have the knowledge to talk with Mike about it he still relishes in the chaos his Dad Mike's ideas bring.

Now Richas relationship with Pac is what peaked my attention yesterday though and it showed me just how much of his emotional personality he got from Pac.

Starting with the obvious it's that Richas isn't often seen sad, he's not seen as a sad egg but rather a mischievous ball of positive social energy and that's how Pac is seen by anyone aside from Mike and nowadays Fit. Everyone sees Pac as this emotional ball of sunshine who's always happy if a little anxious, but both he and Richas hold their actual emotions close. They're rocks for others before they are people who let their own emotions out. Pac having always been the emotional rock for Mike while Richas has always been one for all his parents. It's fascinating to see how genuinely similar they are with this.

Which is why yesterday when Pac told Richas what had happened I feel like was the first time we saw Richas react to the news that one of his dad's got kidnapped again. Obviously he's bound to Crack at some point, he's a kid after all. But to have Richas be this clear about his emotional body language and distress is rare in terms of kidnapping. Seeing him physically recoil, frantically and in disbelief shake his head stung so much cause it's the first time we've seen Richas react this strongly to something like this infront of one of his parents. And I feel like it's because he has that more emotional relationship with Pac.

He let's himself be this openly emotionally vulnerable with Pac because he knows how Pac is. It's like how you have that one person you're not bothered to cry infront of because you know how they are when emotional and they know how you are. They're both people who are painfully aware of how many emotional burden they carry of other's just by being themselves and I feel like a big part of Richas view of Pac comes from that too! (Him saying to Bad that Pac is the most precious Brazilian and that Bad should be careful what he does to him) Richas knows how important Pacs emotional stability is to the people around him and how I feel like he himself takes after Pac a lot in just constantly pushing through things. Because that's what's Pac always done and Richas had to learn this from someone after all.

That's why the way that stream ended hurt me so much more, Richas coping mechanism after deep emotional trauma is just wanting to sleep. Pac actively said he wanted to do nothing but sleep now and Richas KNEW what that implied, he himself knows best what that out of Pacs mouth means because I'd like to think that that's what he learnt in the early days of the favela 5. That's how he learnt to deal with emotions because Pac had always been the one to be so open with his own to Richas. It's why Richas didn't stop him. It's why Richas just helped him get to his room and sat at his side while he played a melody in hopes that he'd ease some of the emotional pain his dad currently carried. Richas still ended up being the emotional rock in this, but his behavior with Pac was so much more emotionally charged yesterday. He was so much more vulnerable himself because he is so much more similar to Pac and actually seeing it this obvious was almost painful.

Richas and Pac are used to dealing with their emotions on their own so for Richas seeing Pac break this openly infront of him was distressing because he knows how much it takes for someone, who buries distress deep down so he can carry the weight of others peoples feelings, to break this upfront. To dump all his emotional pain onto someone and I feel like Richas was for the first time openly struggling to be a emotional rock until he gathered his bearings.

And I'd like to think that he slept alongside Pac for the same reasons yesterday, hoping that the dreams would take any tears away that were so close to falling while he was awake.

[hbyrde36]

The Crawl

Part 1 of 5

AO3

Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson | WC: 3340

Will Byers is only 12 years old when he learns that monsters are real, and is taken far away to another world that looks like his home, but isn't. The only thing they know for sure about the other dimension is that it does not play by the rules of the real world, and that, as the newest member of the party comes to realize, has possibilities. Time travel stories love to play with the idea that one small act can have an incredible impact on the future. What if, in a weird twist of fate, Will is found in the Upside-Down by a friendly face that just can't keep his mouth shut and is sent home safely with a warning of what's to come. Will it be enough to change everything?

Inspired by the VERY little information we have about the Stranger Things writer's plans for season 5

-Will-

Will Byers was only 12 years old when he learned that monsters were real. 

The party had just finished up a marathon gaming session at Mike’s house. None of them wanted to leave, but they'd been playing for hours and it was a school night. Everything was fine until he and Dustin split up, the other boy taking the turn that would get him home, while Will kept going towards his own house. It was dark out and the old light on the front of his bicycle had started flickering again when some thing suddenly appeared in the middle of the street. 

He only got a glimpse of it as he crashed his bike, but it was horrifying. Taller than a man and made sounds that sent chills running up and down his spine.

Sounds no human mouth could produce. 

Will left his bike where it lay and ran. Home wasn’t far, he could make it. His Mom would be there. Jonathan would be there. He’d be safe. 

Except the house was empty when he arrived save for Tucker, who wouldn't stop barking. Dogs always seem to be able to sense when something is wrong. Will peeked out the window to see if the coast was clear, but the creature had followed him and was still lurking around outside. 

He tried the phone, dialing 911 just like he was taught to do in an emergency, but it was no use. Something was wrong with the line. All he could hear on the other end was static and a distant screeching.

It didn’t matter, it was too late for anyone to help him anyway. 

The monster was at the front door. 

Will took off through the back door and headed straight to the shed where they kept Lonny’s old shotgun. If no one was coming to save him, he’d have to try and save himself. 

He loaded the gun with shaking hands, aiming it at the door where the monster would undoubtedly be coming from. Little did he know, this creature didn’t play by the rules of Will’s world. 

It was so cold in this place. This world that looked like Hawkins, but wasn’t. The monster had brought Will here, taken him through some kind of portal that had opened up in the wall. 

He was confused, to say the least, but he knew instantly that he’d been transported somewhere else. 

The sky was wrong and the air was thick and there was this weird ash falling all around him. It was harder to breathe here.

But he was small and quick and somehow he managed to escape the monster and hid in and around the wrong version of his house for a long time. 

He tried so many different ways to talk to his mom, but it seemed like everytime he got close to her the monster would sense it and reappear. Eventually it got so bad that he had to abandon the house altogether, for his own safety and for his mom’s. 

He didn’t want to risk that thing crossing back into his Hawkins and hurting her or Jonathan, or any of his friends.

Will went to the only other place he could think of that felt safe. A place where maybe the monsters wouldn’t find him. Castle Byers, his fort in the middle of the woods, his home away from home.

It took a lot out of him, getting there. Will didn’t know how long he’d been in this Wrong Hawkins, days at least, but he hadn’t had any food or water in all that time, and it was starting to take its toll. He shivered constantly now, and it wasn’t long before he could scarcely do more than lay on the makeshift cot in his hut made of branches and sing to himself for company. 

“Should I stay or should I go now?

Should I stay or should I go now?

If I go, there will be trouble

And if I stay it will be double

So come on and let me know”

He wondered if he’d ever get to see his family again. If his loved ones would know what happened to him. 

Will stopped singing as he heard a twig snap outside only a few yards away. Then another, and another. 

The monster had found him. 

He didn’t run this time. Not that he wasn’t scared anymore, he was petrified. He didn’t want to die. He was just too tired, too weak to get away again. 

He stayed where he was and braced himself for the claws and teeth, squeezing his eyes shut thinking that maybe if he didn’t see it coming it wouldn’t hurt so much. 

“Baby Byers? Is that you?”

Will’s eyes snapped back open. He couldn’t believe it. It wasn't the monster with the flower petal mouth peeking in through the door. It was another boy, a much older boy. 

The boy stepped cautiously inside the fort and crouched down next to where Will was laying. 

Up close he could see the older boy a little better. He had long dark curly hair hanging down from under a bandana that was wrapped around his head. He was ghostly pale, with big brown eyes that were tinged with just the slightest bit of red, and ruined clothes that were splattered with dried blood. 

In any other circumstances the boy would have been a terrifying sight, but when you’ve been faced with nothing but actual monsters for so long, seeing another person even in this condition felt like hope.

“Yeah, I’m Will.” He managed to answer.

The boy grinned widely. “No shit? Hah! It really is you! This is wild, man. I mean, it was a crazy theory , right? But I thought, shit , if this place is stuck in 1983, and just between you and me I think time is a little screwy here all around, I figured- I don’t have anything better to do, let me see if I can find the Baby Byers from back when all this started, and here you are!”

Will had absolutely no idea what this guy was going on about, but he sounded happy about it, and now Will wasn’t alone anymore. 

He had help.

“Who are you?” He asked.

The strange boy’s face screwed up in thought. Will couldn’t help but be amused at how dramatic his movements were. How expressive he was even in this bleak wasteland of a world. 

“Listen, I don’t want to make a creepy situation even creepier, but I don’t know if I should tell you my name. I don’t know how all this works or what kind of effect it might have on future events, y'know?”

Will didn’t know. 

None of what the other boy said was making any sense to him. He tried to respond, to ask the boy to slow down or explain what he meant, but the words got caught in his throat as he began to have a coughing fit. 

The boy rested the back of his hand on Will’s forehead, just like his mom always did when checking him for a fever. 

“Jesus, kid. You’re freezing.”

The boy shucked off his green vest and let it fall to the floor before removing the black leather jacket he had on beneath it and laid it down over Will like a blanket. 

When his chattering teeth slowed a bit and the cough had stopped, Will asked, “Won’t you get cold?”

The boy waved a hand through the air dismissively. “I’ll be fine. I don’t really feel the cold anymore.”

It was an ominous admission that when coupled with everything else Will couldn’t ignore. 

“ What are you?” Will asked, almost more curious than anything, really. He probably should have been more afraid of the boy than he was, but he was being so kind that it was hard to care that he might not be completely human.

The boy shrugged, seemingly unbothered by the question. “I’m… just a guy who got mixed up in this place because of a monster, same as you.”

Will narrowed his eyes. It felt like the truth, just maybe not the whole truth. “And you're sure you can’t tell me your name?” He pushed.

“You are persistent, kid. I’ll give you that.” The boy said with a laugh. “ Now I understand why you and Mike get along so well.”

“You know Mike?!” Will said excitedly.

“Shit.” The boy cursed as if he’d said more than he meant to. He looked nervous suddenly but recovered quickly. “Not important. What is important is getting you out of here. Can you walk if I help you?”

“I think so.”

“Good!” He said, reaching out to help Will shrug his arms into the sleeves of the oversized jacket. “Because I think I know how to get you out of here. Let’s get going, Will the Wise.” 

Will stared up at the other boy, mouth dropped open a little in surprise. “How do you know that ?”

“I know a lot of things…” The strange boy mumbled to himself, trailing off and staring into space a little as they stepped out of the fort and started walking. He kept one hand resting on Will’s back, ready to help if he stumbled or got too tired. He hadn’t felt this safe in days.  

“Oh.” The boy gasped suddenly, and out of nowhere. “Okay, yea. This could work!” He grinned down at Will and patted his back gently. “We’re going to do it your way.”

“You know you're not making any sense, right?” Will asked, giving him a little sideways look.  

The boy cackled, eyes shining with amusement. “Right, yeah. Okay, let’s start over.” 

He halted their steps and turned to Will, offering his hand to shake. “Hi, my name is Eddie and I'm from the future.” He tilted his head. “Sort of”

Will cracked a smile, letting out a soft laugh of his own.

“What? No gasp in awe? No sounds of surprise?” Eddie asked.

Will shook his head, still grinning as they resumed walking.

“Jeez, you throw a kid into another dimension for half a week and he goes all cynical on ya.”

“Another dimension?”

“Oh yeah. You guys call it the Upside Down, I think Mike, Lucas, and Dustin came up with it while you were in here. They also named all the monsters and shit after things from D&D.” Eddie started ticking things off on his fingers. “The tall humanoid thing is the demogorgon.”

“But-” Will began.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s not what the demogorgon looks like . I said the same thing, just go with it. Then there's Demodogs, the one’s kinda self explanatory. Demobats too, and the Mind Flayer. But– here’s the thing, what you don’t know, at least not yet, is that it’s all connected to one guy. He’s controlling them.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” Will was doing his best to keep up. He made a point to remember every word Eddie said in case it was important, even if he didn’t understand what any of it meant now. Eddie said he was from the future, if that was true maybe it would all make sense later.

“I know, kid, I know.” Eddie shook his head. “There's so much that hasn’t happened to you yet. It’s hard to explain, even I don’t get it all, and we don’t have much time. I think the sooner we get you out of here the better.”

Will wanted to ask why Eddie kept talking like he was the only one getting out of here. Surely Eddie would come along too, right? He couldn’t want to stay here. He looked like he needed a hospital.

“Okay let me think, some of it’s a little fuzzy, but maybe I can just rattle off what I do remember. Uh, 1984, next year, Halloween. The shit’s gonna hit the fan again with all this stuff. You’ll… hell, you’ll just have to be careful and keep an eye out because I don’t know much about that one except that there were demodogs involved. I think Dustin actually kept one as a pet for a while or something.”

“What?!”

“It’s Dustin! Would you expect any less?”

Will shrugged. “I guess not.”

“It’ll be fine. Stick with Steve, he’ll keep you guys safe.”

“Oh. Who’s Steve?” Will asked. 

“In 1983? He’s Nancy Wheeler’s boyfriend, or about to be. Don't worry about it right now, you’ll meet him eventually.” Eddie tapped his own chin, thinking. “What else, um, 1985. Something definitely happens at the mall.”

“What mall?”

“Oh right, they didn’t start building it until ‘84. It’ll be there. Anyway, there’s a fire, but it’s not a fire and somehow there were Russians involved and Steve and Robin got tortured and– Oh! And Hopper died!”

Eddie grimaced at his own tone. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, good to know I guess. What should we do then?”

“I”m gonna go with the same advice as before and say stick with Steve. He always seems to manage to keep you brats safe, although honestly for that one you kids should probably be keeping an eye on him . Just, uh… don’t let him or Robin go near any elevators.”

Will nodded along as if that made any sense. Maybe it would one day, or maybe this was all a hallucination. “So is that it? Is it over after that?”

Eddie looked away. Face going carefully blank which was a stark contrast to the way he’d been up until now. “No, after that it… We call him Vecna… He started picking kids off. Chrissy Cunningham, she’s his first victim. She…” Eddie trailed off, a faraway look in his eye.

As they approached some kind of facility Eddie stopped walking abruptly and squatting down so he and Will were eye to eye. They had reached a tall chain link fence that surrounded a huge building. The sign outside indicated that it was Hawkins Lab. Will had heard of the place but he’d never been there before. 

“I don’t think I can take you any farther than this.” Eddie said. “You’ll have to walk in there on your own, but from what I understand that’s where your mom and Hopper came in and out from when they rescued you.”

“My mom found me?” It was crazy how easily he was starting to believe all the things Eddie was saying, but it was all a little too weird for it to be a lie 

Eddie nodded. “She sure did. Your mom is a total badass. I might not have known what was going on back then, but even I remember how everyone in town tried to tell her you were dead. She refused to believe it, and she was right.”

Eddie got quiet for a moment. He looked back up at the massive building for a long minute before bringing his attention back to Will.

“Will, I don’t know if any of this will make a difference, and there is so much more I should probably be telling you, but I don’t know how to explain it so you’ll understand. Just, trust each other, all right? Stick together no matter what. You're gonna meet a girl when you get out of here. A girl with superpowers named Eleven, like the number. I don’t know shit about her story really, but I do know this all comes down to her. Her and Vecna. When the time comes remember that Vecna is Henry Creel, and Henry Creel is One. A number, just like Eleven. He used to be human, they knew each other before, and he’s after her just as much as he’s after a way to get out of this place. That's the key. If you can kill Vecna, then I think all of this will finally be over.“

“Is that what happened, did Vecna do this to you?” It was the first time Will had openly acknowledged Eddie’s odd appearance and all the blood and wounds that were easily visible through the rips in his shirt. 

Eddie offered him a sad smile and dodged the question. “Just because we failed, doesn’t mean you will. Maybe this small change, getting you out of here early, and giving you my admittedly lacking knowledge of the future, will make a difference.”

Will opened his mouth, hesitating before closing it again. There was so much he wanted to say. He wanted to beg Eddie to come with him, to ask if they’d ever see each other again, but somehow he already knew Eddie wouldn’t answer. He wouldn’t leave this place, maybe couldn’t. 

Instead of saying anything he threw his small arms around the strange boy's waist, careful to avoid his wounds, and hugged him tightly. Eddie embraced him in return, patting his back awkwardly as they separated. Then he walked up to the fence and bent down pulling at the bottom of the chainlink until it was curled up enough that Will could crawl underneath it to the other side.

Eddie spoke to him one last time through the fence. “Somewhere in that building is a gate, a portal back home. There should be men monitoring it. Let them find you and bring you home, you’ll be alright.”

Once he was back in the Right-Side-Up, when he was finally home and recovered from his ordeal, Will tried to tell everyone about the strange looking older boy named Eddie who had helped him get out of the Upside Down. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the type of kid to make up stories, not outside a game of D&D at least. 

No one believed him. 

“Then how did I know you named it the Upside Down? How did I know Eleven’s name or the fact that she had superpowers?” Will had argued. 

Unfortunately, once the men in hazmat suits had come to pull him through the gate, he’d sort of passed out and spent the next few days unconscious in the hospital wing of Hawkins Lab. 

Mike had been there almost the whole time, sometimes joined by Lucas and Dustin as well, and they would talk to Will as he slept about everything that had happened while he’d been gone. When he finally woke up and tried to explain what really happened to him, everyone assumed that he knew these things, the name of the place he’d been, the name of the monsters, and about El and everything else, because he’d heard his friends talking to him as he slept. Even Doctor Owens, the one nice man he’d met who worked for the lab, had said it was a possibility. 

Everyone thought his mind had invented Eddie, that the strange boy had been nothing more than a visual and auditory hallucination to help him deal with what was happening to him. 

It didn't even matter that he had actual physical evidence in the form of a worn black leather jacket. Once again, it was explained away. It was probably one of Lonny’s old jackets that he found and put on because it was so cold, they said. There might not be people in the Upside Down, but there was plenty of stuff. 

Never mind that there was a guitar pick on a length of thin chain shoved in one of the pockets, and Lonny had never played guitar a day in his life.

They all seemed to just want to get over it and move on. Eventually Will stopped trying to convince anyone else that Eddie was real. He believed, and that was good enough for now. They’d all know soon enough if the things Eddie had told him would come to pass.

The truth came to slap them all in the face just under a year later when Dustin, Lucas, and the new girl Max found themselves facing down demodogs in the junkyard with nothing for protection except an old school bus, and Steve Harrington with his nail bat.

It was a little easier to get the others to believe and listen to him after that.

Part 2

Thanks forever to @penny00dreadful for being the best friend, cheerleader, and beta in the whole fucking world 💜 truly could not do it without you.

[goodlucktai]

If you're okay with another fic prompt, maybe Mikey hiding his tears in the rain? And one or all of his brothers (or friends) figuring it out and comforting him.

Can I also request it be in the 2003 verse?

x

Usually it’s Raph who puts his foot in his mouth in a major way, but this time it’s Leo. 

It doesn’t happen often. Donnie thinks he could probably count on both hands the number of times Leo has said something intentionally hurtful to one of his brothers and still have some fingers leftover. Since returning from Japan, that frightening temper that turned their warm-hearted leader into a brooding stranger has been discarded for good, but it left a few scars. And Leo is as much a teenager as the rest of them are, even if he wasn’t always free to act like it. It’s not fair to expect him to regulate his emotions all the time. It wouldn’t be fair to expect that of a non-traumatized seventeen year old, let alone a kid with PTSD and anxiety and god only knows what else.

So really it shouldn’t be as surprising as it is when the words come bulleting out of Leo’s mouth, sharp and seething, “Some ninja you are.”

It shouldn’t be, but Raph whips around like someone struck him upside the head, and Donnie’s hands on Mikey’s shoulders clench tight involuntarily. He’s still kneeling in front of Mikey, still mopping up the blood on his head with a shirt Raph unapologetically ripped off a clothes line, still halfway through mentally cataloging the fatalistic difference another inch to the left would have made, so he has a front-row seat to the hurt that parades across the smallest turtle’s expression. 

That hurt hadn’t even existed when the Purple Dragon threw the knife at Mikey’s head in the first place. He’d been laughing a second ago, shaking off the jitters from the very close-call. Leo’s bitter condemnation stole that away in an instant. Their eldest brother is special and important to each of them, but he’s Mikey’s hero. 

Rain is drumming all around them, cascading off the boarded-up storefront overhang they’ve sheltered under. It’s early May and the recent days have gotten warmer, but abruptly Donnie feels very cold. 

“He don’t got eyes in the back of his head, Fearless,” Raph snaps back, like clockwork. His hackles are up, because as far as he’s concerned, only one person on this planet is allowed to give Mikey any semblance of a hard time, and that person is decidedly not Leonardo. 

“Then how about a little spacial awareness?” Leo bites out, squaring his shoulders when Raph faces him, as if they’ve never managed to mature past thirteen years old. “We’re running drills in the dojo starting tomorrow.”

It’s on the tip of Donnie’s tongue to say the hell we are, but he doesn’t bother. Raph and Leo are starting their unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object routine and they’ll be at it for a good five minutes at least. Instead he reminds himself that his big brothers are keyed up and agitated out of worry and care, that the fighting only started after Donnie gave the all-clear, because it really won’t do anyone any good if all three of them lose their tempers. 

A second later Mikey is leaning out of Donnie’s hands and pushing himself to his feet. He’s looking right at Leo with all that hurt packed away into a neat little box, impossible to find. His orange mask is stained a stomach-turning rust color. The balled-up shirt is still in Donnie’s hand and Mikey is just letting himself bleed. 

“Mike,” Donnie says helplessly. 

“I’ll text you later,” he replies and ducks away quickly, out from under the overhang into the alley. Donnie sometimes wonders at the things his family has normalized over the years. His only little brother, the only person Donatello has always been directly responsible for, is all plastered with rain and walking off with a head wound, and it’s not even in the top ten worst things that’s happened so far this year. And it’s May. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Leo says suddenly. He storms after Mikey, reaching out like he’s going to grab him by the arm, and Donnie has just a second to think yeah that’s not good before Mikey whirls around. 

“Back off!” 

It stops Leo in his tracks so completely that it probably would have been funny in another time and place. He blinks dumbly, like the computer in his brain is rebooting. Donnie knows that this sudden temper of his was triggered by fear—that the sight of a knife flying towards his littlest brother’s head woke up something ugly in his brain that sprang to the defense in the quickest, easiest manner it could, clouding rational thought—but that doesn’t mean his words hurt any less. 

Mikey wipes roughly at his face with the heel of his hand. It’s impossible to tell through the rain, but he might be crying. Then, with an economy of motion that all his brothers have envied since they were clumsy little toddlers, the orange-banded turtle scales the side of the adjacent building and disappears over the roof into the dark. 

“Well done, asshole,” Raph says, but it’s half-hearted at best. “At this rate, I’ll be out of a job.”

Leo’s brow is furrowed beneath his mask. His hand is still slightly raised, like Mikey is still right there within reach. He’s never been here before, Donnie knows. Even when Leo was at his most hateful, those painful weeks after the showdown with the Shredder, Raph and Donnie—and even April, Casey and Splinter—were careful to keep him the fuck away from Mikey on his darker days. There are some things that can’t be walked back. 

This isn’t that. To be frank, they’ve said much worse to each other over much smaller fish. But sometimes hurt can spring up where it’s least expected. And sometimes when you get a knife thrown at your head, you want sympathy from the person you’ve spent your whole life idolizing, not scorn. 

“Why did I say that,” Leo mutters. It doesn’t sound like a question. 

Donnie answers anyway. “Because you’ve refused every single one of my attempts to get you into therapy. Telehealth exists, Nardo. We’re on a very good insurance plan.”

“Since when do we have insurance?” Raph says. He’s peering out from under the overhang into the rain, like maybe Mikey’s going to make a surprise reappearance. “Are you frauding some sleezy millionaire again?”

“Just doing my part,” Donnie says mildly. He touches Leo’s shoulder and says, “You owe him an apology. But he’ll be okay.”

It’ll be a cold day in hell when just that would be enough to make Leo stop worrying, especially in this case, but Donnie still had to try. Sure enough, Leo nods once, mechanically, and then says, “Can you track his phone?”

“Slow down, Mamanardo,” Raph says. “Let the kid have a minute to himself.”

“He’s hurt,” Leo replies like it’s making him sick to think about. Donnie has a comment locked and loaded that sounds something along the lines of “how convenient of you to remember that now and not when you and Raph were ripping each other’s heads off” but he chooses to be the bigger turtle. 

“He’ll be okay,” Donnie reiterates. He tosses the ruined shirt into a nearby bin and then sticks his hands out into the rain, washing the sticky, tacky red away. “Besides, tracking his phone is unnecessary. There’s only one place he would have gone.”

Even Raph raises an eyeridge at that, and Leo is equally clueless, but that’s okay. Donnie has been Mikey’s co-conspirator and secret-keeper since before they could talk in full sentences, and it’s only fair, because Mikey has been all of those things for him, too. Being on the B Team doesn’t have a lot of perks, but this is one of them. 

A couple of hours later, Donnie successfully shakes his brothers off at the lair. Splinter caught Donnie’s eye and helpfully ushered the elder two turtles into the dojo for a convenient meditation session, so Donnie didn’t have to worry about a pair of red and blue mother hens trailing after him. 

He crawls up the side of an apartment building in East Village and sits on the railing of the fire escape to peer into a warmly-lit window on the seventh floor. Inside his little brother and his little brother’s best friend, a human with piles and piles of curly blond hair and dimples when he smiles, are probably minutes away from getting a noise complaint, dancing around a cramped shoebox living room and singing at the top of their lungs. 

“Girl, put your records on,” they bellow, sharing the TV remote as if it’s a microphone. “Tell me your favorite song! You go ahead, let your hair down!”

There’s a big pink bandaid plastered to the side of Mikey’s head, and evidence of Thai takeout on the coffee table that’s been shoved to the side of the room, and he’s in a sunflower yellow hoodie that’s at least two sizes too big. Any trace of the hurt from earlier is long-gone. 

They’ll need to get home eventually. It isn’t safe to stay out in the early morning hours, as the city that never sleeps begins to pick up speed. And Leo is almost certainly going to be waiting up for them, restless until he sees for himself that his baby brother hasn’t been driven away by him completely. They really do need to get that boy some therapy. Donnie makes a mental note to get April on his team for that. 

For now, there’s still some time. Until the end of this song, at least. It’s catchy.