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recent fav byler fics (ao3)

would recommend <3 how are you all geniuses

5k+ you are sick (and you’re married) by wiseatom

Will’s favorite coffeeshop regular comes in with a girl. Clearly, they’re married. (1/1)

Dumbstruck by wwhatevr

Will gets doped up on pain meds after Dustin accidentally hits him with a board, and Mike is being normal. He is.

Finally Boyfriends (Actually, We've Been Dating For Five Years) by Vecnas_Left_Toe

Will and Mike finally got together the night before, and the following day, are now balancing being affectionate and deciding whether or not to tell their friends. (1/1)

in the closet (at mike wheeler's house) by andiwriteordie

Suddenly, Mike Wheeler is pushing Will back into the closet, and the door closes quickly on the two of them (and the apocalypse). Because... you know... the universe is an asshole and stuff. (1/1)

10k+

need-to-snow basis by smoosnoom

Mike has been acting strange, and, if Will didn't know any better, he'd almost think Mike was flirting with him. Thankfully, he knows better. Kind of. (1/1)

a three-step plan to make will byers fall in love by RomeoWrites

It’s Christmas break and Mike Wheeler is having a crisis. The rest of the party concocts a three-step plan to get Will Byers to fall in love—assuming, of course, that he hasn’t already. (1/1)

Going Too Far Just to Have You Near by borealisaurora

Mike Wheeler always seems to gravitate toward Will Byers. When Robin points this out, he thinks she’s crazy, and they strike a deal. If she wins, he has to consider that maybe Mike has a crush on him too. (1/1)

15k+

it would be the death of you to come with me by willow_lark

Will is gone, and no one is sure where he is. Mike thinks he might have an idea, though, and sets off to not only find him, but get some answers regarding the name on his wrist this morning, and why Will hadn't said anything about it at all. (1/1)

just gotta call on me by wiseatom

Five times Mike and Will shared a phone call throughout the years, plus one time they didn't have to. (1/1)

20k+

playing pretend never felt so real by RomeoWrites

“So, what were you saying then? About your mom and the vacation?” Mike and Will pretend to date. It goes exactly how you would imagine. (1/1)

the words we held back by mogiah

Mike and Will get Holly'd. “Why didn’t you call?” Will’s breath hitches. “What?” “Mike called you almost every day but you never called. Mike complained all the time.”

50k+

roll for initiative by sapphicwithapen

A Jumanji AU where Mike’s homebrew DND campaign is a bit more than just a game. (14/18)

Much Ado About... Something? by RainyPebble07

For his senior year, Will Byers decides to try out theater. The school is putting on Much Ado About Nothing. He's sure it'll be fun...even if he does have a hopeless crush on the lead actor. (28/28)

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why does nobody ever talk about these pages from will byers secret files 🥺🥺🥺

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Hope u like it. It is for @skizdlr ‘s #dtiys on instagram.

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mike better wake the fuck up and put will's bitchass bandaid right back on

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some more little soft byler moments - this time in polaroid form :p (also sorry abt the formatting , there was originally five but i took it out and this is how it ended up but by the time i realized it looked wonky asf, it was 2 late 2 change it w/o having 2 redo most things cuz the lines would get fuzzy)

again - close ups and some backstory to them under the cut :>

just 2 preface - the dates on these r in not like. special i just picked months that fit the scene (colder months if they r more clothes/school months in the school one/etc) and totally random days. also idk any characters birthday so if i accidentally put the date of one, just ignore it or change it in ur head 2 a different date in the same month lol

also ! i hc that el took these w/ a polaroid camera that she gets for christmas bcuz she liked watching jonathan take pictures so they got her one so she could do it herself :) which is also why they dont start until 1987 and i think she would b the biggest byler supporter of their friend group (which is why she takes these pictures)

oh and i hc that the byer's move back 2 hawkins in2 a different home which is where the every one except the first one is placed - and the first one is placed in the school (probably in either the hellfire clubroom or the av one? i think thats what it was right?? god i need 2 watch the show again i can't remember anything lol)

like i said b4, this ones in a clubroom/classroom after school where its just the party. the two people in the back r dustin + el w/ lucas taking the picture for her ig. this is what i was referring 2 in my headcanons post , where they lay over eachothers shoulders like this :) idk i just think its cute :p also yes they r wearing eachothers sweaters .

this one is one in the hopper-byers' new house and i think it would probably b like. a movie night or smth tho idk y the lights would b on but whatever. it could b w/ all the hopper-byers + mike or could just b a movie night 4 mike + will - whichever one u want 2 imagine. either way , el finds them like this and takes this photo :) also i tried 2 add a background in the window but its bad so dont look at it 2 hard lmao (its just trees) also will Definitely wakes up w his shoulders/back hurting cuz ive slept in a similar position a few times b4 and God it does not feel good when waking up lol

this ones supposed 2 b a morning at the hopper-byers' home. i tried to add little bits of mike's hair 2 show it got longer over time but its so minuscule idk if u can even tell. also yes thats The flannel lol. i had 2 have in here at least once. and will is wearing a hellfire shirt, whether its his own or mike's is up 2 u :p . i also put the black nail polish in this one and not the others bcuz i think that this is abt the time they would start wearing it? yknow? cuz like. doing stuff like that takes time cuz u have 2 work up the courage 2 do it, especially in the 80's. i only started wearing nail polish consistently a few years ago and sometimes i still get feelings of 'i would pass better if i didnt wear it' or 'ppl will see my nails and assume im a girl bcuz of it' and i dont even have 2 worry abt getting hatecrimed- not physically, anyways.

sorry that kinda got away from me . anyways - i think this would b them coming downstairs in the morning and hanging out in the living room for a bit talking to whoever's there. while they're distracted (so they dont protest/move) el takes this one . (shes also probably learned by now 2 always have her camera on her so she doesnt miss moments like this)

this ones another one that would b in rhe morning af the hopper-byers' house . i also set it further in the future (for them at least) so it would make sense as 2 why they - specifically mike - would b this comfortable in the house. i just think that it would b such a safe space for the both of them and that they would act in a more carefree way than they would at the wheeler's house or anywhere else really. mostly bcuz joyce is the Best Mom™️ and she definitely creates an environment where every1 feels comfortable 2 just . b themselves in? idk i just really like joyce lol . she kinda reminds me of my mom in that sense . also i Had 2 have a will carrying mike in some way in here, i wouldnt b me if i didnt lolol.

anyways this ones mostly just self-indulgent lol. i Live 4 hella domestic moments

thats all i have 4 backstories but if u wanna read a fic w moments like this from me , its currently in the works and i have been posting abt it under the tag 'summer of 1988 fic things' if u wanna check that out :p (its inspired by these fanarts if u wanna look at those as well)

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stifling my sobs bc he deserves the entire universe

no because i get it now. 

and if i was going to lose you, i’d rather just get it over with. like ripping off a bandaid.

and

he stifles his sobs, fully resigned to knowing that he’s just ripped off the bandaid.

ripping off the bandaid isn’t will getting over mike - it’s will losing mike. why does will think he’s lost mike? BECAUSE HE THINKS THAT HE’S JUST PUSHED HIM AND ELEVEN TOGETHER. because will’s veiled confession, in his mind, pushes mike away from him and towards el. rather than suffering with watching mike be confused about el, rather than drawing it out, will uses his own feelings to get mike and el together, to get the ‘losing mike’ part over with. 

it’s so sad because mike is finally doubting his relationship with el, and will, instead of taking advantage of that, or even getting some hope that mike could maybe like him back after all, just wants mike to be happy, and to rip off that bandaid, so to speak. he’s not just pushing mike and eleven together, but he’s telling mike that he’s losing him, and he’d just rather get it over with. i literally can’t express this coherently lmao my brain doesn’t seem to be working, but. it’s not about will moving on from mike, it’s about him using his feelings to propel milkshake together, and therefore thinking that he’s lost mike for it.

so in conclusion, this script doesn’t actually change anything, it’s just kinda reinforcing what we’ve known all along - that will thinks mike doesn’t love him, and would rather happily with eleven than give himself anymore ‘false’ hope.

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can the duffer bros PLEASE leave my boy alone for once [crying emoji]

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“i hate who i am” I AM COCKING A GUN AS WE SPEAK WHAT THE HELL EVEN IS THIS

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Entertaining the possibility that Mike’s struggles with Will and El are exactly what was shown to us on screen

i.e. looking at Mike's perspective through the lens of his insecurities rather than internalised homophobia. This is going to be long, but I've tried my best to properly articulate and connect all my thoughts!

Starting off with,

Mike being unable to tell El that he loves her (4x2) because to put it simply, he’s not in love with her (anymore at least) but he loves her enough that he can’t lie about it, and neither can he let her go. He’s not fallen out of love because of El, but subconsciously because of who he’s become when he’s in a relationship with El. We see early on in season 4 that El has been pretending to be someone she is not in her letters to Mike. We see her breakdown when Mike handles the roller-skate-to-Angela’s-face situation badly because that’s the confirmation she wanted to know that Mike may not be appreciative of who she truly is. El was under the impression that she was a monster in that scene. She is not, but she was worried Mike would react negatively to her and he did. El even compares it to Brenner’s reaction to a traumatic incident she repressed and believed was her fault. What Mike said later is probably true - that he just reacted that way out of shock, but he also couldn’t tell her he loved her right after, so El heard what she wanted to hear. Pretending to be someone else wasn’t working for her anymore. If we observe carefully, we’ll realise that El hasn’t been the only one pretending in this relationship.-

-Mike has been pretending to be someone else too. Perhaps for longer. Through season 3, he acts like he’s moved on from DnD, games, hanging out with the party, and all the little things that make him his nerdy self. Everyone (Hopper, Lucas, Will, Dustin, and Max) points out that there is something off about Mike and El’s relationship - that he's keeping her to himself and that he's ignoring his friends to be with her. In contrast, we have Lucas and Max who balance their relationship and their friendships. Mike later picks a fight with Will that feels irreversible when Will calls him out on this behaviour in 3x3. That entire fight could be Mike projecting, but he was especially projecting with the “What did you think? That we were going to sit in my basement and play games for the rest of our lives?” line. When El moves away, we see Mike join Hellfire Club, indulging himself in his interests once again. We haven’t once seen Mike talk about these interests with El outside of season 1, where she ignored him:

gif by @beaulesbian

He feels embarrassed at the end of season 3 for getting excited about presents. The costume designer for s4 even confirmed that it was scripted in the Airport scene that Mike was dressing up a certain way out of his norm to fit in. All this coupled with what Mike says in 4x8 in the van - “someday she’s going to realise that I’m just some random nerd who got lucky” further proves that he thinks he’s not worthy of El unless he’s someone who is not just a random lucky nerd - which is what he was, technically in that moment (but he is also so much more, and we will circle back to that in a bit) Mike has spent so much time trying to be someone he’s not that he isn't sure about his feelings for El anymore, because-

-Mike is scared he’s lost Will -his best friend- in this process. This is the third time Mike has lost Will and this time according to him, it’s his own doing (“I feel like I was worrying too much about El, that I lost you”). The fight from season 3 and the ending of season 3 are two of the Mike and Will moments that stand out before the Byers move to California. In the fight, Mike indirectly tells Will that it’s time to grow up and move on from DnD, and in the finale, Will is shown to have sort of moved on from it. He gives away his stuff and says he’ll just use Mike’s set when he comes back - that is if Mike still wants to play. And Mike for a moment feels reassured that Will didn’t take his comments during the rain fight to heart. He thinks they’re separating on good terms and that their friendship has been mended, except he’s going to realise soon that it hasn’t. Will starts to pull away and doesn’t reach out, as Mike accused him of in 4x2. Will thinks that if he has to lose Mike, he should do it quickly, like ripping of a band-aid. But Mike doesn’t know that this is because Will has romantic feelings for him and that it’s Will trying to deal with his own struggles. Mike genuinely believes that something he did (probably said, during the rain fight) is the reason he’s lost Will. And this hurts because Mike has always been authentically himself around Will.

Mike is now stuck pretending to be someone he is not in a relationship, and as a consequence, he thinks he has lost his best friend, with whom he could always be himself. And all this pretending because-

-Mike has put El on a pedestal. This could be because of her powers, or because of who he thinks he should be in a relationship with a girl because she is canonically the first girl to have shown interest in him.

The first ever character description of Mike Wheeler states that not having a girlfriend is one of his insecurities.

This also explains why Mike lashed out at Will in the most hurtful way he could think of when Will called her “some stupid girl” he was ruining the party to swap spit with(3x3). But as we’ve seen over and over again, Mike and El are just not compatible in their interests. Normally, that is something couples can easily work through together, but Mike has been trying to mould himself into someone that he thinks is compatible with El - straying further away from who he is, and El has been doing the same for Mike - both of them losing themselves in this process.

I think by the end of season 4, it’s very evident that both of them are tired of pretending to be someone they’re not. Because El got a taste of individuality. She has learned from Max and Owens and even Brenner that the choices she makes doesn’t define whether she is a monster or a superhero - but who she is as a person. She has realised that she is content in being a good person and not a superhero.

Meanwhile, Mike spent all his time away from El in Will's company in season 4, understanding that in their time apart, Will never stopped considering Mike as his best friend. Mike realises that Will is just as devastated as he is about their withering friendship (4x2, rink-o-mania fight) and that he is still able to be vulnerable and his true self around Will (literally every heart-to-heart they had in s4). Mike, for the first time in almost two years (apart from his time in Hellfire), has been able to experience what it’s like to be himself again because he's never felt the need to change himself to be around Will.

Mike can’t balance his relationship with Will and El because he is two different people around each one of them.

Will’s veiled confession turns out to be exactly the way Mike wished El (or anyone) loved him - like he is their equal, and like he is worthy of the person he loves. This is why he reacts this positively to Will's words:

Except that is not El's truth. That’s not how El feels (because El has been putting him on a pedestal too) ("Everyone looks at me like I'm a monster. You look at me like I'm a monster"). They’re Will’s feelings.

Will and Mike at this point in canon, consider each other as equals while Mike and El consider themselves inadequate to be with one another.

Everything that transpires after is just an unreasonable amount of chaos for drama tbh. They could’ve made Mike be honest with El in a moment of calm and talk out his insecurities if they wanted to fix that relationship. Have him reassure her that they can fix what’s broken with proper communication, but instead, Mike’s love confession during yet another high-stakes situation is laced with half-truths and him bringing back the whole El being his superhero concept (In direct contrast to Jonathan and Nancy describing how good the both of them are as people in their 4x1 love declarations while talking in sync to Fred and Argyle). This is followed by El decidedly not talking to Mike properly for two days after that monologue nor seeking comfort in him when she's just experienced one of the worst losses in her life. Mike is still drifting towards Will at the end because now that he’s got a taste of what being himself around his best friend feels like again, he’s finding it hard to let go.

Both Mike and El seem a little done with each other just before the final byler heart-to-heart, and I can only imagine that they’re going to break up at the beginning of season 5 because both of them have realised that they deserve better and that’s it’s neither of their faults. They’re kids who are learning what they want in life and that’s okay. They jumped into a relationship when they were 13 and it didn't work out for them. For them to rebuild a friendship instead would be monumental because they truly do make a great team when they don't have all this relationship drama suffocating them.

Where does this leave us with Mike and Will in season 5? Imagine Mike finding out that the Van scene confession was from Will himself. A possibility he’s never thought of because he believes he’s not lovable just the way he is. Mike finding out that the person he feels like he can be himself around the most loves him romantically, and that the same person also feels like a mistake except when he’s around Mike, because Mike makes him feel safe. And this person is someone who has seen the ups and downs of Mike for almost a decade. I don’t think Mike is going to take that very lightly. In fact, I think it’s going to rock his entire world. Because Mike will finally realise that Will never ever gave up on them. That Will’s been secretly and silently hoping for them to be more for a long time and reciprocation doesn’t feel like a long shot to Mike because loving and being around Will is so, so easy.

I’ve always been a Mike is dealing with internalised homophobia truther, but I’m starting to think that Mike might actually just be more emotionally repressed and insecure. To the point that he’s constantly pretending to be someone he’s not. I don’t think he’s scared of being perceived as a queer person (seeing as how he always stuck with Will and defended him strongly against the homophobic bullies. And how in the beginning of season 4, he feels comfortable being perceived by his high school classmates as a nerd or a freak) but I think he’s worried he’s never going to be enough for the person he loves. And Will has already proven that Mike just as he is, is everything and beyond to him. Will thinks he’s a nerd(very affectionately), he’s a leader, he’s his the heart, he’s Will’s safe space, he’s Will’s go-to person, and he’s Will’s forever (“We can just play DnD and Nintendo for the rest of our lives”)(“I’ll always need you, Mike”). Mike feels the same way about Will too. He’s just going to realise that oh, all this will stay the same and maybe be even more incredible when they shift their friendship to a romantic relationship.

Mike is going to fall harder than ever once he finds out that Will is in love with him and I honestly think Mike is already halfway there. He just can’t seem to put it together because he’s always loved Will this way. Mike is finally going to realise that he can spend the rest of his life in a loving relationship with the person who understands him best. The person he understands best. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks because holy shit, Will Byers loves him (and vice-versa)

I also think it would be incredible for Will (who deals with internalised homophobia in canon) if Mike, his partner, is more confident in his queer identity because having Will by his side gives him the strength and courage to be who he is. I think it would neatly wrap up both of their self image issues. Will unconditionally loving Mike for who he truly is and Mike unconditionally loving Will, through his gay struggles and all.

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We all collectively agreed to call it the Byler script but imagine what we actually get is:

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will: i work hard to make this house a home

“wIlL iS a hOmEwReCkEr.”

Meanwhile, Will:

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Will Byers daydreams about dnd..

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so this really was gay coded and i wasn’t insane

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mike wheeler you’ll never find anyone else who loves you that much and does it exactly in the way you need are you kidding me that boy is writing poetry about you in his mind and painting a heart on your shield open your eyes i am shaking you i am putting you in a salad spinner

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in this household, we love byler. but we love el as well. we also stan elmike as platonic besties and absolutely adore willel the wonder twins. it’s peaceful up here

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when blue meets yellow in the west

3am byler doodle cause my brainrot is unreal