#byler dads

[groovinrightalong]

Byler dads…

[sapphic-bats]

Okay ficlet request….Byler as dads??????? 😂🤷🏻‍♀️

UM, OF COURSE?? Request from @photographygirl814

“Mike!” Will says as the door is shut behind him. He fumbles with the bag of groceries in the odd hold he had to use to undo the lock. “Mike, I’m home!”

Instead of Mike rounding the corner, the sound of small bare feet slapping the hardwood flooring alerts Will as to who’s about to appear. Her presence is quickly made as she charges up to Will, not even tall enough to stand far above his knees, and latches onto his leg.

“Daddy!” The little girl squeals happily, putting her face in his pant leg.

Will laughs, still only having one free hand to place on the top of her head. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry, but I need to set down the groceries. Could you-”

“Nora, step back from Daddy. Give him a second, he has bags, remember?” Mike, suddenly having come around the corner, prods Nora with his reminders.

Respectfully, Nora unlatches and steps back, eyes still big with excitement. “I can help!”

Will’s already smiling. “I think this bag’s too heavy.”

“Not for me!” She proudly announces, placing her hands on her hips.

“I wouldn’t bet against it.” Will chuckles, and Mike steps forward.

“Alright, alright, you two,” he reaches out for the bag of groceries, stepping past Nora’s buzzing frame. “Stop hogging the attention, Nor. I need to see Daddy too.”

Nora giggles, bouncing on her heels before she seems to remember something dramatically. “Wait, wait! I drew a picture!” She cries out excitedly as she turns heel and charges back into the living room.

They both chuckle, well-used to Nora’s antics, and Will, with hands now free, cups Mike’s face and kisses him. “Thank you for picking her up. How’s she liking her new daycare?”

“Oh, it’s great. She loves the kids there, and her teacher is very nice. I’d say this week is going really well.”

Will slides one hand to his boyfriend’s shoulder, smiling. “And how about you? How’s writing going?” He asks. “Do you need my illustrations yet?”

“Almost.” Mike reaffirms, kissing Will’s cheek. “Still finishing the last few chapters, but I think it’ll be good for editing soon.”

Will kisses him again, and they both smile into it. Then, a young voice shouts from the living room.

“Dadda, where’d you put my drawing?”

Mike scoffs a laugh, and Will shakes his head, nimbly slipping his hand into the handle and stealing back the bag. “You go take care of that. I’ll unload the groceries.”

“I’ll help you afterwards.” Mike insists, smiling and striding off to help their daughter.

Will does the “Little Rascals” wave under his chin, which Mike mirrors gleefully. Once he’s rounded the corner, Will chuckled to himself and heads into the kitchen.

If you had asked Will Byers in 1986 if he had any hope of a happy future with quite literally everything he wanted, he would have said no. Truthfully.

But sometimes, it’s a wonderful thing to be wrong.

[oliverhangout]

cat dads 🐈‍⬛

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

My dad's lack of media comprehension serves as a fascinating litmus test for gay subtext. He "didn't pick up on any gay breadcrumbs" between Stede and Ed until the moment they kissed, but he knew that Will Byers was gay just from "it's not my fault you don't like girls" in series 3. It took him way too long to realise that there was something fruity going on in Killing Eve, but he fully believed that Sherlock and John ended up together

[milkvanissonothappening]

I’m a Mike Wheeler girl dad truther

[strawberrybyers]

if the rumors are true about casting a younger mike, will, and jonathan then i think i will actually go into cardiac arrest if we get a flashback scene of them. like i truly feel like if they’re going to have a scene of them when they’re much younger then it’s because vecna is showing memories to mike or will. i’m praying it’s mike who gets vecna’d because we need a tour of that boy’s brain

[gaysforbyler]

One of my favorite pieces of Byler evidence is that Mike treats El the same way he would treat Will.

Like how in S3 he tries to regulate how much El uses her powers, saying that she’s putting herself in too much danger. The problem is, El hates that. She loves her independence, and being able to make decisions about her own body, since that was something that has always been taken away from her.

Will, on the other hand, never stands up for himself. Mike knows that he would sacrifice himself for the greater good without fuss, and needs someone to tell (or demand) him to stand down. Will needs someone to assure him that the weight of everything isn’t on his shoulders alone, and to protect him from people who will walk all over him.

[stevesbipanic]

Hopper and Will bonding over them thinking Mike and Eleven are gross together. Hopper loves this arrangement glad that his new son his some sense in the world. They silently rejoice together when they break up. Hopper is happy finally he has peace. That is until of course he discovers the reason Will hated it when he brings home his new boyfriend.

[booksandpaperss]

Ayo shout-out to Lucas Sinclair for being literally the only member of the party to not have massive boulder sized daddy issues, and therefore is the only one out of all six of them that is capable of consistently owning up to his own actions with more than just one specific person if anyone at all 🫡

[groovinrightalong]

Alright, as promised, here are some ✨married Byler/Byler dads headcanons✨

A little preface that this is specifically for my transmasc Mike headcanons, so it’s not necessarily canon compliant, it’s pretty much just MY older byler AU so if it’s not your cup of tea you can just scroll along. Brief mentions of being a seahorse dad and a heads up right now that transphobia will get you an IMMEDIATE block:)

Now that that’s over with!

-Mike and Will get married at some point in the early 90s. Mike doesn’t get his birth certificate changed until some point in the 2000s, so legally he’s considered female, and you better believe they take advantage of it. He’s like at least three or four years on hormones by the time they get married but they’re just like :D yes we’re a straight couple I love my wife :D

-Bonus points if Will wears a dress for the wedding

-They get a dog pretty much as soon as they move in together. Will loves dogs (Mike’s more of a cat person but he adores the way Will’s face lights up when he sees them) and she’s probably a birthday present from Mike to Will. They like to joke that she’s their child, they bring her along to family picnics and events. Joyce and Jonathan are obsessed with her, she reminds them of Chester.

-Mike grows up to be an author! He makes a decent living between selling his books and a gig working at the local library, and Will does some graphic design. He doesn’t particularly like how regimented it is, he prefers doing art for the love of it, and he gets his chance when they’re early to mid 40s because Mike’s books start to get really popular and they can live off that income. Will then pretty much just does the art for the covers and works as a freelance artist. Gloats about being a trophy husband.

-They spend the first decade of their marriage just being the cool uncles for Jancy’s kid, always stopping in for surprise visits because they all moved to a bigger city within a decent distance from each other. Mike likes to buy the kid gifts he knows will piss off his sister, like water guns and play dough that’ll get stuck everywhere. He’ll sneak them candy, pick them up from daycare to take them out for the day. He’s a nuisance.

-Will aids in the schemes, but obviously he’s Jonathan’s baby brother so he’s the good one and Mike is the bad influence😇 And then the kid learns their first curse word from him when he accidentally slips up in front of them and he never hears the end of it.

-He’s really soft and happy with them though, and Mike obviously notices. Mike’s sort of iffy on if he wants any kids but he can tell Will does even if he won’t say anything.

-They adopt their son in like early 2002/2003. His bio mom was really young. They keep in contact with her, send her pictures and updates. His name’s Sam! (Short for Samwise. Because they’re fucking nerds.)

-They end up with two kids. Their daughter’s only six or seven months younger than Sam because hey y’all testosterone is NOT birth control. She pretty much looks like a mini Joyce, her name’s Gwen. (Gwenevere. Like I said, NERDS.)

-Their kids kind of have a similar dynamic to Will and El because they’re so close in age, they’re always in the same grades, etc. People jokingly call them the twins.

-Nancy takes her revenge by doing pretty much the same thing Mike did with her kid with the twins. She’ll sneak them treats, get them sugared up when they’re at her house then send them home. Sam thinks she’s the coolest person EVER (much to Mike’s horror)

-Gwen’s nonverbal. As a toddler, Sam talked for her pretty much all the time. She never said her first word, was really quiet and reserved, and it worried them obviously. But then they were like, oh wait, let’s try sign language (Mike has times where he’s pretty much totally nonverbal too so they already know a decent amount) and as soon as she figures it out she’s talking to them all the time. She’s super high energy and between her and her brother, they get into a LOT of trouble (Mike’s first gray hair comes in when he’s like 34😭)

-She also has a bit of a sixth sense! It’s mostly to do with the supernatural (which isn’t really an issue since the gates are all closed now… right?) but sometimes she’d react to something right before it happened and it would freak her parents out. Will has it too, but he’s so used to it now that he doesn’t really notice it? And Mike’s just like oh well that’s just how he is it’s not weird. It’s a… lot freakier when it’s a toddler.

-(Bonus!! Jonathan, Nancy, Mike, Will, and the kids all have the last name Hopper. Hop adopted Jonathan and Will and they changed their names to match him and their mom and El because FUCK Lonnie.)

I have lots more thoughts but this is going on really long and just🫠 Yeah. Byler dads.

[chirpsythismorning]

Welcome to a series I'm calling:

Yes, that scene did foreshadow Mike's monologue was disingenuous

Because you'd be surprised how many times the show (even prior to s4) has poked fun at Mike's monologue in the most random ways.

The Bingham's Beautiful Performance

First we have Suzie's sister on the floor, bedazzled and sporting a veil all while her brother is filming. This is basically the kids attempting to present a tale of a romance ending in gruesome tragedy.

Our bride here is El. The edition of the veil could be a nod to the loud majority's series long assumption that Mike and El are going to end the show together, preferably getting married.

Unfortunately, this is the closest thing they'll ever get to it, with the acknowledgement of that possibility in and of itself being mocked.

This next shot makes the likelihood that these scenes are connected pretty much indisputable, that being the edition of the record player behind the bride's head.

The only reason they made a point of having Will push the radio out of El's way, was to subtly connect this moment in Surfer boy to the beautiful performance we saw at the Bingham's only a few episodes prior (scenes that are widely known to be filled with foreshadowing for the season's ending).

A few bylers have already talked about these parallels, so this isn't new knowledge per say. But I do know some have dropped it altogether as possible foreshadowing for whatever reason, while most fans outside of the byler fandom insist it only foreshadowed Eddie's death. However, I think there are too many details that equally, if not more connect it to Mike's monologue than to Eddie's death.

Some fans have also noticed how Will was missing in quite a few shots at the Bingham's, which is interesting, but not all that surprising. Especially in this case...

Will. Will is the director

Director Will: GET THAT RADIO OUT OF MY SHOT!

Will directed the monologue when he used his feelings to inspire Mike, with the reminder of it (literally in the moment) directing Mike to confess to El, just like Suzie's brother directed that beautiful performance. Both performances convincingly left its audience thinking that the performers feelings in that moment were believable and...

genuine...

[doofythewhy]

Hey so since I only got four responses to Part 2 of my Byler dads post. I decided to put the four in the poll

[queen-of-hawkins-why-ler]

My dad has officially been converted to the cause, y'all. He started out as a GA and a Milkvan, but last night he was explaining to my mom that Will was talking about himself during the van scene and also that Jonathan knows about Will and Mike and that's why he was watching them in the rear-view mirror. 💀💀

[tiredgaycrisis]

me when i finally convince my STEM friends who have only seen 2 seasons of stranger things to let me talk about the byler theories:

[ice-sculptures]

FAVORITE BYERS BROTHERS SCENES: 5/?