#i need mike to see how everyone is crushing on will byers to see the PRIVILEGE he has because will can only look at HIM

[messrsbyler]

i just KNOW will has been someone’s gay crush either in hawkins or lenora

[byerseason]

why byler is the only logical way to end stranger things: a personal opinion

long post incoming. i've been thinking about what else can they do other than canon byler or is there any logical way which would please everyone. but i genuinely can't find any logical ending.

first of all, let's see the options i heard from people who doesn't think byler is gonna happen.

not adressing will's love for mike, mike never finding out about it and will's arc simply focusing on supernatural part : well, we all know that's impossible. not after spending a whole season to show us his deep love for mike. also it's confirmed that an emotional arc for him is what is gonna tie up the story.

"his love for mike was for him to explore his sexuality, he's gonna have another boyfriend." : they could easily show it to us without bringing mike into it. the byers moving to california was a perfect chance for it since it's a place better than hawkins when it comes to LGBT, they could easily give him a love interest, include him to their journey to find el just like they included argyle and give him a good character arc in s5, just like robin in s4. well, they didn't.

"mike is gonna reject will" : okay, then what was the reason of making him fall in love with mike? did the writers want to write a horrible story for the only gay child in the group? especially after showing us how miserable he feels about mike and how much he loves him? no.

now let's look deeper at the character arcs. my biggest reason to think byler is the only logical way is: will byers

i don't think i have to mention how much will suffered throughout the show and how he needs the happiest ending. they left season 4 at a point where everything about that love triangle is unresolved and they're obviously going to do something with it.

we all know mike is the one who understands will the most. he always been, since the very beginning. we've been shown that their bond is different and special. in a scenario where mike rejects will, we all know this is gonna be ruined. will is not gonna magically bury his love and go back to being besties with mike. and for mike, it's not possible for him to ignore will's love for him and stay friends as nothing happened. it would ruin their friendship for absolutely nothing.they can't simply take the only one who understands away from him.

will said he wants to spend the rest of his life with mike for two times. even if he doesn't have any hope, he desires it. so why giving him a love that he will never have? in this scenario will's character arc is literally "the gay kid always thought he will never have love just because he is gay, he thinks it's wrong and he is a mistake, well yes, he was right! he will never find the love and just watch the other straight people have it. thanks for watching stranger things." will's arc should be an arc where he is proven wrong, where he understands it's okay to love, where he is loved the way he loves, purely. otherwise his character arc is gonna be useless. where did we leave will in s4? he was thinking there's no chance for mike to love him and he has zero hope-- he ripped off the band aid. if mike rejects him the character arc and all the build up in season 4 becomes useless. he was at zero, and he is still at zero.

like i said giving him an arc where he is loved the way he loves was easy to be done without mike but now it's too late. they made it super clear that will doesn't want to be loved, he wants to be loved by mike. mike hurts him yet he still thinks mike makes him feel like he's not a mistake at all. that's not a simple crush. that's pure love. as a writer of a show you don't spend too much time to sympathize the characters love to the audience -something you never did with your other characters, at least not as much as will- you don't show them pouring their heart to a gift, just to waste it, just to make the character feel the worst they can feel just to make the person they love happy. will loves mike such a way that he prioritizes his happiness over his. this is what is gonna pay off.

the second character whose character arc needs byler: mike wheeler

mike has always been the most complicated character of the show, but most of his actions have no explanation other than him dealing with his own feelings. the show introduced mike as the leader of the party and i think it's okay to say he was one of the main characters in season 1 & 2. what happened after s2? a crazy character downfall. the audience started to dislike him and think he is useless. he didn't have any character development in the past 2 seasons. why? why? why?

because we all just watched him struggling. dealing with something inside of his mind that we don't know.

let's talk about a scenario where byler doesn't happen. this makes all mike's arc about being a love interest since s3. no development, no explanation for his behavior in the past 2 seasons. of course mike is traumatized and never talks to anyone which effects his behavior a lot. but there's still an unanswered question. why is he distancing himself from will specificially? the writers showed us that they understand each other the best, they know each other the best and notice if somethings wrong, so why is he distancing himself from the person who he needs the most as a best friend?

this is where we start to think if the problem is will himself, for mike.

why did we make will fall in love with mike just for mike to distance himself from will for no reason and make will upset? did we want will to suffer for no reason or create an empty storyline?

if mike is not how we think he is, he is going to end the show with an empty character arc who is nothing but a love interest, a side character. if mike ends up how we think he is, he is going to be the best onscreen representation of internalized homophobia. people think he is useless or just an asshole but he will turn out to be a perfectly written character who has his own arc.

people love to say "gay people didn't exist in 80s, byler would be unrealistic." which is completely wrong. gay people DID exist in 80s and they DID find love. did they have peace? they didn't. this is why mike and will are gonna be a real representation. we watched all the real struggles they went through. even if we don't get to see them as a couple, they will know they love each other by the end and that's what matters. and there's nothing unrealistic about it.

[luckybyler]

My observations on the VR game re: Byler, including a couple of things I haven’t seen mentioned yet

I just saw part of a game walk through on YouTube (I can’t afford VR), and hoo boy!

1. The Mike that says El is so amazing and Will wouldn’t get it isn’t the real Mike, it’s the Mike that Vecna shows Will to terrorize him: In Chapter 3, Vecna possesses Will. Will resorts to a happy memory (Mike and him in Castle Byers), where Mike gives him a a ViewMaster. Will starts playing it, but Vecna makes every memory awful, full of spiders and particles. He distorts scenes, showing things like everyone ditching Will after calling him weird and other things that blatantly didn’t happen. Then he tells him he’ll show him suffering and shows that scene where Mike talks about El while particles fall down.

2. Will is confirmed to be a human being with wants and needs of his own: During that scene, Vecna goads him to tell Mike how he feels, and that he doesn’t want to meet El at all. At this point Will and El hadn’t met in the real world, and Will didn’t wish harm on her or anything, he just didn’t want her to be there, which is a normal and natural thing to feel about your crush’s hypothetical crush.

3. Vecna’s full of shit: In chapter four, Vecna tries to possess the four boys from the Party, and fails. He tells Dustin he puts double the effort into the friendship than the other three boys do, but Dustin turns him off with the TV remote (is Dustin’s happy memory watching tv?). Then he basically tells Lucas “you’re black and people judge you for it”, but he’s in a memory of a movie date with Max (at a drive-in theatre somehow) watching happy memories of the Party. Lucas does see the monster (so it somewhat hits?), but Max says it can’t do anything and they easily shut Vecna down. He also taunts Mike by telling him he’ll never see the most awesome person he’s ever met (El) and it’s his fault because he didn’t try hard enough, but he’s in the middle of a DnD battle with the boys and doesn’t even pay attention. A couple of dice bring Vecna down no problem.

4. Mike lovingly tends to Will’s nosebleed: Vecna does almost succeed in possessing Will, but he’s with the boys playing DnD, and Mike soon realizes Will’s nose is bleeding. He takes Nancy’s shirt and uses it to clean the blood/attempt to stop the bleeding, and admonishes Lucas and Dustin for not going to get a towel. Notice that in season 1 the boys saw El have nosebleeds and Mike was never as precious about it, unless she passed out of something and then they all helped. Lucas and Dustin are even heard in the background pointing out that nobody dies from a nosebleed. There’s a funny moment when Vecna tells Will he will always be alone right as Mike sweetly asks him if he’s ok while holding his face.

5. Brenner is training Vecna (???) and points out that he’s full of shit: I don’t know if this means anything for the show’s canon, but it’s interesting. Before Vecna tries to possess the boys, Brenner points out that they’re too young and untroubled, and afterwards he makes fun of Vecna for losing against children, again.

6. Will isn’t the weakest link, he’s the link Vecna knows best: Brenner points out to Vecna that the reason he could possess Will easier is because he already knew him (from the Upside Down) and knows the nature of his fear. When Vecna tries to possess Will, he does tell him to help him find out about Lucas’, Dustin’s and Mike’s fears, and actually asks him “what is Mike afraid of?”, indicating that he knows jack shit about them. Which leads us to:

WHERE THE LEDE IS BURIED:

7. LOSING EL ISN’T MIKE’S BIGGEST FEAR. OR SOURCE OF GUILT.

It might be a fear or regret of Mike, but it’s not THE fear.

Turns out Vecna was attacking Lucas, Dustin and Mike based on superficial knowledge, suppositions and stereotypes (Dustin’s the newest of the group, Lucas is black, Mike met El), not an actual, deep knowledge of their minds. Yes, good memories helped them keep Vecna at bay. Yes, those things Vecna told them might bother them. No, those aren’t the things that are at the core of their fear and guilt, or the right angle to drive them to either the dark side or suicide if pushed about them enough.

P.S.: At some point (that I haven’t seen yet, Max tells El that she doesn’t need to be a superhero all the time, that she’s more than fine as Jane, her friend. I think this might be literal, as in, superpowers are not the key to defeating Vecna. This is a psychological thriller disguised as supernatural horror, therefore the weapons to defeat him might be more psychological.

TL; DR: Vecna will be defeated with the power of Cognitive Behavioral TherapyLove and Friendship.

[bleedingoptimism]

𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 

𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆

“No, no, no, nonononono,” Eddie chants repeatedly looking around his room.

He tore the place upside down, he looked everywhere.

Where the hell is it?!

Shit shit shit shit shit shit.

If someone finds it, his life is ruined. There is no way he can pass this as a joke, everyone will know.

They’ll know just how pathetic and lame he is. Doing a character sheet of his crush. What the hell was he thinking? Well, he wasn’t really, he was high and bored when he did it. And no one was ever supposed to see it. So really whose fault is it?

Sighing as he runs his hands through his messy hair, that is just an extra type of messy today with how much he has pulled at it. He resigns himself that the paper is not in his room and decides to retrace his steps.

He goes to the Wheeler’s place, knocks on the door loudly and Nancy opens the door,

“Hey Eddie, everything okay?”

He slaps his hair down nervously, God he probably looks insane right now, “Yeah, yeah Nance. I just misplaced something,” he says, kissing her cheek as he lets himself in, “Can I go look for it? It’s a hellfire thing.”

“Yeah, of course. You want any help?” Nancy answers sweetly, opening the basement door for him.

“No, thanks!” he screams, going down the stairs two at a time.

There’s no use. It’s not there. Eddie grabs his hair and pulls, stressed. He’s going to have to ask Wheeler Jr, shit.

Fuck! If Wheeler has it, he’s probably going to end up being extorted to do his bidding for the rest of his life. 

Once more he tries to slap his hair back in place before going back upstairs, trying not to look so freaked out, “Nance, is the bad Wheeler home?”

Nancy chuckles at the nickname, “He’s at Will’s. I’m going there now. Need a ride?”

“I’m in the van, but I’ll meet you there,” he tells her, dropping another peck on her cheek and then bolting out the door.

Jon answers the door at the Byers when he gets there a record five minutes later. They half hug in greeting, and then Eddie just runs upstairs not bothering to explain himself.

And Jon doesn’t even bother asking.

“Hey,” he says when he bursts through the door to Will’s room. Will jumps a little from his position on the bed, nearly dropping his paintbrush. Mike just looks up from where he’s lying on his stomach with a comic book in hand.

Eddie half smiles apologetically at Will for startling him and then says, “So here’s the situation,” and crosses his arms, trying to look imposing. He used to scare the shit out of Mike only a few months ago. He can do it again.

“I lost a very important page from my notebook. It’s a big deal, notes about the final boss and shit. If I don’t get it back, or if you read it, the campaign is ruined and therefore canceled, get it?” he says, completely making things up on the spot.

The boys look horrified and immediately get moving, looking through their things to check they didn't accidentally take it. Mike asks him if he checked the basement while Will calls on the walkie for a D&D emergency. It’s cute how much they care, and for a second Eddie forgets how much shit he’s in, until he hears Dustin’s voice through the walkie.

“I— yeah. I found it.”

‘Shit.’

“Did you read it?” Will asks over the walkie, looking worriedly at him.

“No! No, I didn't!” Dustin says right away.

‘Okay, good.’

“Where is it?” Eddie asks loud enough for Dustin to hear over the radio.

Dustin takes a long time to respond.

“...I gave it to Steve.” 

Mike scoffs, “What, why?”

But Eddie can’t hear any of his excuses, something about not reading it and that Steve can give it to Eddie and about trust and-

“The campaign is canceled,” he yells suddenly and the boys look at him in shock while Dustin starts screaming over the walkie but he pays it no mind. He shakes his head, “I quit Hellfire. I’m done, I’m out. Find another DM,” and then he turns around and just walks out of there.

He runs into Nancy on his way out.

“Everything okay?” She asks worried.

He looks at her and is going to answer but then he hears the kids running down the stairs to catch up with him, can still hear Dustin screaming over the walkie, so he shakes his head and smiles at Nancy.

“It’s silly, don’t worry about it,” he assures her, and then gets in his van and bails out of there before the kids can talk him out of it.

𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗱

part 1: ❤️

part 2: 🧡  

part 3: 💛  

part 4: 💚    

part 5: 💙   

part 6: 💜

part 7: 💗 

☕🥐💕

[steddie-fanfic-recs]

Descent into the Depths of the Earth (Or at Least Milwaukee)

by disastardly

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington & The Party, Steve Harrington & Eddie Munson Character: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Joyce Byers, Eleven (Cameo), Max Mayfield (cameo), Erica Sinclair (cameo) Additional Tags: Dungeons & Dragons References, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Road Trips, Conventions, Author is a GM (just not for D&D), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, slow motion bisexual crisis, Gay Eddie Munson, Bisexual Steve Harrington, He Just Doesn't Know It Yet, The Party Goes to GenCon, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson Lives, POV Steve Harrington, Gratuitous Lord of the Rings references, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period Typical Attitudes, Taking liberties with what happened at GenCon 19, Researched as much as I could but sometimes you need to inject a lil drama, Intentionally being lewd to get a rise out of your crush, pre-Byler in the background, gotta squint a bit but girl it's there, oh my god there were only two beds, but six people so you can see the problem, Steve Harrington Washes Eddie Munson's Hair, Steve Harrington Wears Eddie Munson's Clothes, Slice of Life Words: 55,876 Chapters: 7/7

Summary

“Ask Munson to take you, shrimp. He actually likes this stuff.” “He is going,” Dustin replied, like Steve should know this already. “So why do I need to go again?" “Because,” Dustin said slowly, voice lower than before, “my mom doesn’t want us going with just Eddie. She said she’d feel a lot more comfortable if you went too. Mrs. Wheeler and the Sinclairs too.” -- August 14-17, 1986 - the greatest four days in gaming, or so Steve's been told. It's not exactly his speed, but Steve'll be damned if he lets any of the kids miss out because their parents can't see past Eddie's reputation. Four (and a half) days, six hours from home, with four teenage boys and one Eddie Munson. How hard could it be?

[aemiron-main]

also just w all the chatting abt this today… with Mike being seen by Will as being Will’s knight in shining armor I think it’s worth keeping in mind that mike being cared for/saved by Will sometimes doesn’t make him not a knight. it just means that the knight needs saving sometimes too!! it doesn’t mean that mike’s characterization as the impulsive, somebody who runs into danger, protective knight person is gone, it just means that sometimes that the protective impulsive knight guy needs saving too!!

like I really think that there Needs to be a byler role swap in s5 in order to resolve their arcs because typically, Will is the one providing more emotional support/protection whereas Mike is usually the one providing more physical support/protection. We DO still see Mike supporting Will emotionally etc but it’s fallen by the wayside in s5, and so especially when Will has his little women ‘doesn’t believe that Mike loves him,’ moment, I think that Mike needs to be the one to reassure Will emotionally versus when Mike inevitably gets in over his head with physical danger in s5 (especially with all the signs that he’s going to die and be revived), I think that Will needs to be the one to save him physically, likely by using his powers/using his powers to revive Mike.

especially since Mike a.) has always been the one providing more physical caretaking/support for El but almost no emotional support and so Mike continuing to do this is unsustainable and b.) mike is at a point where his habit of putting himself in danger and his reckless is going to get him killed and is unsustainable and is rooted in his low self-view of himself and how he feels like he has to try and save/help/protect everyone. look at the quarry. it’s not sustainable for mike’s physical and mental well-being for mike to continue to be the one who Always Saves Will/Other People Physically. he needs to be saved sometimes!! just like how it’s not sustainable for Will to continue to be the one who Always Saves Mike Emotionally!! look at the van scene and how much that crushed will!! look at him sacrificing his own emotional happiness to try and help mike’s emotional happiness by trying to patch up mike and el’s relaitonship!! It’s not sustainable!! They need to help eachother and rely on eachother, and this doesn’t need and SHOULDNT change their characterization and who they are!! Mike being saved doesn’t stop him from being a headstrong protector- it just means that the headstrong protector needs saving sometimes too!! Will being the one to save Mike doesn’t mean that he’s suddenly permanently taking on Mike’s role of being the protector and completely changing his characterization and personality- it just means that Will, still being WHO he is, is capable of saving Mike physically in his own ways (esp with powers). Like!! Will IS often a damsel in distress!! But my whole point is that it would be nice to see the damsel do some saving AND see the knight get saved!! Even WILL is beginning to realize the unsustainability of mike saving everyone all the time- we see Will noticing that Mike isn’t eating, we see Will taking note when Nancy mentions the state of Mike’s bedroom, and I think that Will is very likely going to find out in s5 about what happened with Dustin and Mike at the quarry and that’s sort of going to be Will’s moment of realization about “hey, mike can’t always be the one to save people it’s going to get him killed,” and I think that Mike is going to have the same realization about Will emotionally when he finds out about Will having a vecna vision and what Will saw during it (things like Why Will was so miserable at rink o mania and things like Will destroying castle byers etc) or about Will sacrificing his own feelings with the painting and “hey, Will can’t always be the one saving people emotionally it’s going to kill him.” esp since that sort of emotional burden is the exact sort of thing that Henry feeds off of. and yes I also think that people (the audience mostly) are going to realize how much Mike has been struggling emotionally when it comes to his sexuality etc AND how much Will is going to be struggling physically when it comes to his connection with Henry, so I ALSO a think that the original dynamic of “Will supports mike emotionally” and “mike supports will physically” is going to be there just w some extra role reversal thrown in to further emphasize how they support Eachother!!

like the diff between what the audience is aware of regarding Will and mike vs what will and mike are aware of regarding eachother is very interesting to me. the audience is aware of mike’s physical struggle w putting himself in danger (see: the quarry) in ways that will is Not aware of. WILL is aware of parts of mike’s struggle emotionally that the audience does NOT seem to be fully aware of (the subtle ways that Will looks at mike not eating/notes Nancy talking about the state of Mike’s room, picks up on Mike’s insecurities before they’re shown to the audience like they’re often shown to the audience Via an interaction with Will bc he’s the one who notices). Mike is aware of Will’s physical struggle in ways that the audience often is not (ie scenes of Will needing help in that regard are often shown to the audience thru the lens of mike protecting will) whereas the audience is more aware of Will’s emotional struggle because the audience knows that the painting wasn’t commissioned and the audience saw Will’s distress and convo with joanthan whereas mike did not. so imo the audience is going to be realizing more about mike’s emotional struggle whereas Will is going to realize more abt mike’s physical struggle and the audience is going to be realizing more about Will’s physical struggle/connection with Henry whereas Mike is going to be learning more about Will’s emotional struggle.

[biigiiiii]

Nobody:

Me: how I would make Melven work in the context of the show without causing Will to be heartbroken, a hypothesis;

(Disclaimer - I am byler endgame truther and this is just to show that melvin most likely has been written to not work lol)

Season 1 - Will has a crush on Mike at the start, but Will goes missing and Mike meets (and subsequently hyperfixates on) El, cause autism and he’s-just-like-me-fr-disorder, where he gets his ‘hero worship’ out of the way and gets over it pretty quickly when he sees how El being a superhero literally resulted in her ‘death’. But he’s got Will back, and he’s happy about that. Mike was obsessed with being the first to get a girlfriend out of his friend group because he’s the most insecure about that (semi canon), that he tried to project that on to El but she was just super confused. “Will you be like my brother?”

Season 2 - before Will’s crush/feelings for Mike have a chance to get stronger/more like love (which I believe they start to do in season 2, when mike refuses to leave his side and seems to reciprocate), they need to not go through Will’s possession side by side. In this version, El flees Hopper’s cabin earlier on (so she can still have her s2 independence arc), to meet her sister (same circumstances as before, she argues with hopper, finds the box of information about the lab, meets her mom, goes to the city etc). Instead of a vision of Mike making her go home, it’s a vision of Will being possessed by the mind flayer. It’s already been shown by this point that they have some kind of connection in season 1, so she’s immediately concerned and needs to go back to help. So, instead of Mike refusing to leave, El is the one banging on the Byers’ door and begging to help Will because she saw a shadow monster attack him. So season 2 is where things really change, and El doesn’t have time now to obsess over romance movies or Mike, she’s got Will to look after. This is where the WillEl bond begins. At the dance, Will and el dance together platonically, and Mike sits alone, still girlfriendless and now all his friends seem to have beaten him in that department, which leads to…

Season 3 - Dustin has a girlfriend. Max and Lucas are still together, and Will and el are the terrible two, almost like inseparable twins, whispering to each other and playing pranks with El’s powers, and it pisses Mike off. Who does she think she is?! Stealing his bff and now she’s corrupting him? So Mike directs his annoyance at El, and it’s actually mike that ends up begging everyone to play dnd because everything is changing and he hates change cause autism and it’s all El and Max’s fault, he hates them so much! One day it’s raining and he confronts el about it, the classic ‘pick on the girl you have a crush on in the playground’ kinda stuff. After that, she ends up going off with Will and Max to figure out all that stuff with Billy and that ends up playing out pretty much the same way (plus Will). When they are all together in the hospital, Will and El are sat together sharing M&Ms. El is understandably annoyed at Mike, but he has since had some time to calm down and goes over to her to apologise. Will is reluctant to leave them alone, mostly as El had confided in Will (who, during their heart to heart, had admitted that he likes boys) about how Mike had really upset her (they had been good friends when they met and he had really helped her, so she is upset that he is mad at her for apparently no reason), but El signals to him that it’s ok. Mike apologises, she shares her M&Ms with him, and they seem to both show signs that they have a genuine crush on each other. During the Mall stuff, when they’re sitting together in the shopping aisle, Mike fumbles through a confession. El, who now understands attraction and romance a bit better through spending time with max and will, admits she feels the same and they share a small and quick kiss, like max and Lucas’ first kiss; shy and sweet. Then it all goes to shit with the mindflayer etc, and now we see Will and el moving away to Lenora. Mike shows his vulnerability about still being a bit childish about Christmas, but El reassures him he doesn’t need to grow up so fast. So they end on a cute note instead of the weird, awkward one they have in the actual show. Now this brings us to…

Season 4 - El and Will are even more insufferable, it’s revealed that between the mall ‘fire’ and now, that El had been to the library to ask for “books about gay”, to understand and support Will. Will has a love interest in California, who (Steve style) is on his way over to visit Will when he gets caught up in the crossfire, and gets dragged in to the pizza van. It’s so awkward, and Mike is like who tf are you the whole time 😂 but it plays out mostly the same way (except the earlier byler heart to hearts are more platonic, and not as necessary cause they wrote letters to each other and called often enough). This new guy and argyle bond over being dragged in to this unknowingly, and getting high. He gets jealous of Mike but Will reassures him. Then it doesn’t really affect the plot much, he’s just there. He chips in here and there with useful information. For mikes monologue, it’s more genuine and heartfelt - it’s still stressful cause it’s life or death, but he looks a lot less like he’s in actual physical pain lmao, and it focuses a lot less on ‘I love you the first time I saw you’ and more on ‘over time I got to know the girl behind the powers and realised how amazing you really are’ … and no mentions of her being a superhero lol. He also doesn’t need to lean too heavily on the I love you part, cause he’s already told her, he’s just reminding her how awesome she is as a person and how he knows she can do this. Then on the hill at the end Mike and El are stood together (they never fought because he doesn’t hesitate to tell her he loves her or write it), Will and love interest are together, etc etc. also Johnathan still gives Will the ‘I’m here for you’ talk, in episode 1 when he notices there’s something more than friendship between Will and love interest

Maybe love interest is a number or something to make him more relevant to the plot, idk.

I thought about all of this when I was reading a post about m1dleven fanfiction post season 4, and how it doesn’t really work in a satisfying way and I thought… hmm… how would melvin actually work? And then this is what I came up with. Basically what it reveals is that the show is way too deep in melvin bones, that it can’t really be pulled off in a satisfying way. You’d have to go back all the way to season 1/2 to fix it 😂

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

wait now I need to know who else you think had a crush on Steve besides Mike

alright I personally believe that Steve is a-spec and only actually had romantic feelings for 3 people in canon (Nancy, Jonathan, Robin -> I don't think he knew Eddie for long enough tbh, maybe he had a bit of a squish on him).

He also knows he is pretty and charming and is not oblivious (like many seem to portray him for some reason?! getting people is like his thing) to how many ppl are actually into him (though he's sometimes not aware of the full extent of his pretty privilege)

that being said, here is an incomplete list of ppl who are/were into Steve:

Tommy Hagan (I do believe that they made out a lot. but like, in a totally straight way of course)

Tammy Thompson (and basically everyone who was with him at some point, he is an attentive boyfriend regardless of his actual feelings)

Nancy Wheeler (duh)

Jonathan Byers (he is actually a good guy now?! fuuuuuuck)

Billy Hargrove (definitely a factor on why he even started playing basketball in the first place)

Mike Wheeler (kinda like russian Yuri has a crush on japanese Yuuri in yoi)

Will Byers (see above)

Max Mayfield (very superficial crush, they become more like siblings when she gets to know him better. it's the chest hair man)

Lucas Sinclair (kinda the jock version of how Mike is into Eddie in S4)

Eddie Munson

(the underlined stuff are links btw <3 never skip a chance to self promote)

[steddiet-t]

just got a wonderful idea, and i am going to write it into existence bc i am obsessed :)

Eddie munson, king of the freaks, drug seller extraordinaire, Dungeon master of the gods. there are many titles eddie has, but none matter as much to him then 'corroded coffins lead guitarist' he thrives off of it. he loves his guitar, he loves his band, it's family, hell he's been playing since he was 8. it's his life, so when he went through a particularly nasty case of the flu and corroded coffin could not play together for 3 whole months!! meaning all 4 of them couldn't put gas in their car for fucking ages, eddie decided he needed a stand in protégé, an extra guitarist incase push comes to shove eddie is out of order, he wants his band, his friends to carry on with the best replacement possible, sure jeff could be an option, but jeff appreciates being the one holding eddies sharp intricate riffs and gareth's skillfull drumming and dreams well thought out basslines together with his own guitar and his own himness, so when little wheeler starts dropping hints of wanting to learn eddie jumps at it, he hates teaching but mike has corroded coffin potential.

Mike is ecstatic to learn and eddie begins teaching him, he's a little forgetful but he's getting the hang of it, so when he invites the whole party to see him play with a band of course everyone comes, even max comes, even if it is to ridicule him, the kids communally decide steve's house would be the best concert area, steve of course accepts, giving the band directions to his house like they don't know 'harrington house' biggest party's in hawkins, and he even helps them with moving their equipment into the house. now eddies always had a grudge on king steve, he was cocky and sporty and always had a stupid smile on his face, jockish twat, even after dustin attempted to persuade him that he isn't as basic as eddie makes out eddie cannot get out of his head about the stupidly pretty preppy douche, but seeing how easily steve spoke toward his friends, and helped when no one who cared was around, he even offered them any food or drink, gareth accepted the fancy chocolates happily as he put together his drums, eddie just stubbornly sat there fiddling as he takes in the absolute mansion, glass doors in the back showing his massive pool, can just imagine the former swim team Steve harrington doing laps in his very own pool all toned from his basketball days and- eddie shakes his head as he starts writing about his next campaign in the making, today wasn't about eddie it was about little wheeler, who should be here any minute

mike walks into steve's house like he owns the place, that would be fine if when he saw steve he reacted at all, but instead he spins around and starts talking to the others, steve doesn't look surprised or really affected, the band tho, they look confused, steve's just been amazing to them and mike, the one who wanted to have this preformance at steve's house, is all icy? eddie however links the dots, now that he thinks about it, mikes the only one who doesn't kiss steve's ass about everything, even little byers is infatuated with harrington, him and eddie once got into a conversation about steve (don't ask eddie why) and will talked about how steve had stood up to max's brother billy for lucas and even gotten beaten up for it with no regrets and how he cares for everyone, even him himself, eddie gets a bit weepy about it because eddie can see wills look, it wasn't a look of admiration, that was a little crush blooming in his face, which eddie understood, he had his fair share of crushes on older kids growing up, but he understood the way will folded up and ducked his head, making himself as small as possible. eddie understood, but mike, mike was always had a scowl on his face whenever harrington was mentioned, it's possible it's about his sister but mike doesn't seem protective really, eddie shrugs it off though, what did he care?,

it's not like eddie saw the little bit of sadness in steve's eyes that was quickly dismissed as mike iced out him while he was talking him up saying how great he's gonna be, wasn't like eddie felt how badly he wanted to be praised like that, by those eyes and that stupidly soft voice, king steve is a douche preppy jock.

[ellewritesandrants]

Let’s be honest. The reason why Joyce and Jonathan don’t interact with Billy in the series is because they would clock his abuse the second they talked to him and the reason why Hopper has an intense dislike of Billy is because he used to be just like Billy and he hates the reminder of it. I like to think that in another universe, Jonathan befriends Billy before he becomes popular and Joyce realizes what’s going on when Jonathan invites him for dinner. She gives him the first motherly hug he’s gotten since his mom left him and she tells him that she’ll handle it. She then proceeds to ream Hopper out because he promised her that he wouldn’t let any more abusers slip through the cracks when he became Sheriff and he deals with Neil before properly combing Hawkins out for other abusers and getting rid of them.

Billy’s practically adopted by Joyce and he helps them realize that Will is acting weird thus preventing the trap from being set. Imagine Jonathan bringing Billy along with him whenever he went anywhere with Nancy and Billy being hated by Nancy since he took her place as top student in their year which infuriates her endlessly. They tell him all about the Upside Down and he helps the team at the lab with keeping everyone alive. He is extremely surprised to see Max with the other kids and while they fight, it’s only because they care about each other. Billy doesn’t meet Steve Harrington properly until that night and he doesn’t get how everything is connected until Jonathan tells him what happened and he laughs at the image of Steve being beaten in a fight by Jonathan before helping them with a monster called the Demogorgon. He’s a lot more chill with Jonathan’s influence so it’ll be so fun for him to literally whale on the demodogs as a form of anger management. He also doesn’t really dislike the kids since he knows for a fact that they’re Will’s friends so they must be somewhat okay since Will was okay.

Unsurprisingly, Billy and El get along like a house on fire after everything that happened which forces Hopper to change his opinion on Billy rather quickly. With either Billy or Max taking up her time, she doesn’t have time for Mike who the siblings both dislike. Billy and Max convince her that she could do better and much to Hopper’s delight, dumps his ass. Billy’s also a lot more comfortable talking to Joyce about what he went through so when the middle-aged mom brigade starts staring at him for too long, practically objectifying him, he’s willing to tell Joyce who tears into them with fervor. The kids spend equal amounts of time bothering Billy at the pool and begging Steve for free samples which Billy complains about to Jonathan who tells him that he signed up for it so he needs to just deal with it.

The events of season 3 still happen with the mindflayer but weirdly enough, it’s with Tommy and Carol who were heading to the motel to have some fun. They immediately target Steve when coming back and he realizes that the mind flayer has Tommy pretty fast and he gets El to take care of it with Billy’s help in holding Carol back without killing her. Later on, Billy helps Steve with the Russians too and he manages to distract the guards well enough for them to escape untortured so they could get back up in the form of Hopper and El.

Weirdly enough, Steve starts to see Billy in a new light while Jonathan has been slowly falling for his new best friend for a while now. Billy’s had crushes on both boys at different times but he’s pretty sure they’re both straight and into Nancy so he doesn’t bother. Cue The Byer-Hoppers deciding to move to California for a new start and Jonathan inviting Billy to come with them with the promise of bringing Max and Susan too if he wanted. Steve tries to convince him to stay. Billy doesn’t know how to choose between the temptation of freedom and a newfound familiarity.

[marvelslut16]

Can't fight this feeling IV

Jim Hopper x Wheeler!reader

Synopsis: A reader insert where the reader is Mike’s oldest sister, who has already graduated and works at the police station. She has always been infatuated with Hopper, and he seems to be quite taken with her as well. This part takes place in season 1 episode 5

Word count: 4.2k+

Warnings: swearing probably. Talk of funerals and dead bodies. A character learns how to shoot a gun, in probably too much depth. My bad writing/different writing styles from different times I added to the chapter. Age gap relationship. And eventual Stranger Things canon gore.

A/n: It has been a very long two years since my last update. I was honestly so uninspired because the show wasn't on and I wasn't getting any new content. Besides that, I was busy with school and life, as well as not knowing how to end this chapter. But here it is. Let me know if you no longer want to be tagged in this, or if you're new and want to be added to the taglist. I'm already a few paragraphs into part 5.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

After a restless night, I barely slept a wink because I was too busy thinking about the Byers’ and Hop, my alarm goes off informing me that it’s time to get ready for the funeral. Will’s funeral. A part of me keeps thinking that he’s not actually dead, especially since Mike seems more anxious than upset as he fidgets at the breakfast table. 

I put on my black dress and heels in a blur, not even registering that I’m going through the motions until I’m standing fully dressed in front of my mirror. Mike comes in a few minutes later and asks me for help with his tie; dad was choking him and he says it still doesn’t look right. Very few words are exchanged throughout the family this morning, everyone is just going through the motions. 

The funeral is a bit better, I have to help Jonathan with his tie too. I stand behind his seat, hand resting on his shoulder as the Priest speaks, and I glare at Lonnie as he tries to act sad that Will is ‘dead.’ Mike, Dustin, and Lucas are whispering amongst themselves, further fueling my theory that they know something about Will that they aren’t telling me. 

As the service continues I start to glance around the crowd in hopes to find Hop, we didn’t part on good terms last night but he said he’d be here. As much as I hate to admit it, especially if all of this is fake and Will is still alive somewhere, I need Hop. I need him by my side, intertwined pinkies, or wrapped up in his side as he speaks soothing words, even if he doesn’t believe what he's saying and just reiterating the fake reassurances that my mom has told me a thousand times already. 

He’s still not here by the end of the service, making me extremely anxious that something did in fact go wrong last night. The nerves in the pit of my stomach are wound so tight that I feel like I’m going to vomit. After the line of people telling the Byers’ the cookie cutter ‘I’m sorry’s,’ and the ‘if there’s anything I can do’s,’ I walk over to Joyce and Jonathan to see if they’ve talked to Hop at all. 

“Have you guys seen Hop?” I ask Jonathan and Joyce quietly, trying my hardest to ignore Lonnie.

“Hopper is a no good drunk, you’d do better without him in this town,” the man I was attempting to avoid rolls his eyes at me.

“Oh fuck off Lonnie!” everyone still at the gravesite turns to look at me with shocked expressions, except Jonathan who’s trying not to laugh. “Go back to your cheap whore.”

“(Y/N) (Y/M/N) Wheeler!” mom says sharply from behind me, Mike is audibly laughing. 

“We were all thinking it!” I defend, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Someones got a crush on Jim, huh?” he gives me a sickening, sleazy, smile that I just want to slap right off his face. “I thought my son would have found some courage and asked you out by now, no other reason to keep you around.”

“Hopper is my boss, I work with him at the station,” I’m seething. Who does this man think he is talking to me like that? “Jim Hopper is a surprisingly thoughtful boss who is good at his job, and someone I respect very much. And, for your information, Jonathan and I are best friends. Neither of us has ever felt anything more for the other. And Lonnie, we both know that whenever you get whatever it is that you want, you’ll be tearing out of Hawkins with no regard for Joyce or Jonathan, so quit acting holier than thou and just leave.”

I swiftly turn on my heel and head to the car, thankful that I drove seperate from my parents this morning; I took my mother’s car and the other five took my father’s. My heart is pounding, I can hear the blood pulsating in my ears as I start to drive away from Lonnie, from a possibly fake body, and away from Jonathan without properly talking to him. I can always go see the latter later tonight and talk with him then. I’m racing down the streets of Hawkins like a bat out of Hell, finally coming to the edge of town where Hop’s trailer is located. 

Pulling up to his trailer I’m shocked to see him outside looking around in circles, the barrel of his gun pointed towards the sky. He looks like hell; messed up hair like he just rolled out of bed, his cream colored henley has sweat stains around the collar, in his armpits, and down the back. He has a crazed look in his eyes, he looks traumatized.

I jump out of the car with no regard for my well-being, he isn’t right in the head at the moment and he could very well shoot me thinking I’m the bad guy. Lonnie’s words are still fresh in my mind; maybe Hopper went to bed drunk and high on too many of his pills. No! Snap out of it, he’s not like that. He hears my footfalls crunching on the gravel; he whips around pointing his gun at me.

My hands immediately go up in the air in surrender, I need to be careful about my next actions. My eyes widen as he keeps the gun up longer than I thought he would. All of a sudden he seems to snap out of it realizing it’s me and not some threat. He looks at me guilty as he lowers the weapon. 

“(Y/N)?” he asks, his eyes and voice telling me that he’s unsure that I’m actually real. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” I try to soothe him like I would a wild animal. My voice is soft and I slowly step closer to him, hands outstretched and palms facing towards him so he knows I won’t attack. “You weren’t at the funeral, I came to make sure you were okay.”

“I missed the funeral?” he asks, still confused and disoriented. I slowly, gently, reach forward and take the gun from his hand. He doesn’t protest, pushing the weapon into my palm once he realizes what I’m doing. 

“Yeah you did,” I take a careful step back, heels sinking into the dirt under my feet. “I was worried because of where you went after you dropped me off last night. I was scared you were hurt, or worse…” I trail off at the end, not wanting to admit out loud that deep down I was worried that Hop got killed last night. 

My words seem to remind him of why he was outside with a gun in the first place, he takes off running back inside without a word. I follow him in confusion, he’s tearing apart the living room as I walk through the door. 

“Hopper, what are you doing?” I ask in horror, Lonnie's words run through my head yet again. Is it possible that Hop was on a bender before he went to sleep and he was still drunk when he woke up?

Instead of responding verbally, Hop takes two long strides across the entire living room area to get to me, putting his hand over my mouth so I can’t talk again. He puts the index finger from his free hand to his lips as a sign for me to stay quiet, before pointing around the room. I frown as he leaves his hand on my face for a few seconds too long. 

I watch as he finally pulls back, observing him tearing apart the cushions for his couch and pulling his phone apart piece by piece. I glance around the room, noticing the spilled pills on his coffee table. Frowning, I set Hop’s gun on the table and put his pills back in the bottle as well as tidy up the empty beer cans strewn on it. 

Hop rushes to the bathroom as I start to tidy up the mess he created in the living room. I can hear him taking apart the light fixtures in there and my worry for his sanity starts to grow. I sigh and sink down onto the ground, the living room is a mess and I don’t have the heart nor the energy to continue cleaning. First we bury Will, or whatever that was, and now Hop’s losing it, how can this day get any worse? I bury my head in my hands as I hear him rush from room to room, tearing them all apart. 

Hop comes back into the living room like a hurricane, tearing apart anything he missed the first time around. I let out a squeak as he throws a light bulb to the ground, it smashes into a million pieces less than a foot away from me. I don’t want to make it worse and get in the way; but I also don’t want him to hurt himself as he destroys his home. 

The last thing untouched in his entire house is the ceiling light in his living room. His shoulders are tense as he unscrews the bolt to take off the glass covering the bulbs. My eyes widen in shock as he pulls down a listening device, or more commonly known as a bug. What the hell did Hop get himself into last night? Hop grits his teeth in an angry sneer before grabbing a book he threw from his room, and smashing the bug repeatedly until there was no way it was still functional. 

“Hop?” I finally dare to ask, raising from the floor carefully avoiding the broken lightbulb. “What happened last night?”

“I went back to the morgue,” Hop runs his fingers through his hair, pulling briefly on the ends. “I-I cut into the body, and it wasn’t real. It was stuffed just like a teddy bear, or some shit.”

“Oh my god,” I murmur under my breath, not expecting to get a response from the man in front of me. 

“So then I snuck into Hawkins lab, got pretty far too,” he continues with his story like I didn’t interrupt. His eyes keep darting around the room like he’s expecting something to hop out at him. “I found a room with a stuffed animal and a kid’s drawing on the wall. The basement- the basement had weird white things floating in the air, there were vines growing out of a glowing hole in the wall. I was surrounded by men in white hazmat suits, next thing I know I’m waking up on the couch; my pills are spilled on the table with lots of empty beer cans that I didn’t drink.”

“Will’s still out there, probably in that glowy viney thing,” I cover my mouth, suppressing a sob. I’m not sure what’s worse; Will being dead, or him still being out there and being held somewhere in Hawkins lab. “We’ve gotta save him Hop, and I’m not letting you do anything by yourself again. I’m not having you die on my watch, not when I can be there to help you.”

Hop is opening his mouth to protest you helping him, you can tell by the scrunch of his face he’s not thrilled with your idea, but tires on the dirt path outside stop him. He yanks me away from the window, grabbing his gun off the coffee table, he pushes me behind him and away from danger. Two pairs of footsteps clomp down on the stairs leading to the front door, and Hop rips the door open before the people can knock.

“Hello? Whoa! - Hey!” Callahan exclaims when Hop steps out of his trailer, gun in hand. 

“Jesus, Chief,” Powell looks at Hopper warily. “You all right?”

“What are you doing here?” Hop’s body is positioned just so that someone would have to be looking intently into the trailer to notice me behind his back. 

“We tried calling but,” Powell’s voice trails off at the end.

“Yeah, phones dead,” Hops voice is gruff and his answer clipped. I can tell he wants the two idiots on his front porch to leave, so he can continue to talk to me about what happened and where to go from here.

“Whoa, (Y/N), what are you doing here?” a shiver crawls up my spine as Callahan gives me a once over. Hop subconsciously- or consciously, I’m not quite sure which- moves in front of me completely to block Callahan’s pervy gaze. 

“Hop wasn’t at Will’s funeral, so I came by to check on him,” I push Hop out of the way and step beside him on the small porch, shutting the front door behind me. It would look a lot worse, and far more suggestive, if Hop was hiding me from view. This way it looks like we aren’t hiding anything- hiding me being there- well, except hiding the torn apart living room from the two doofuses.

Both Callahan and Powell give me disbelieving looks, Powell more so because he saw the way I was with the librarian who slept with Hop the other day, but neither of them voice their opinions on the matter. Instead Callahan starts telling Hop why they showed up in the first place, two more people in town are missing. The naive men in front of us think that everyone’s on edge because of Will’s death, but Hop and I are both thinking that it has to do with whatever is happening at the lab. 

“You go back to the station,” Hop tells the men to go back to the station once he finds out that the men went hunting near Mirkwood. My heart stuttered a bit hearing Hop himself call it that, it makes me wonder if I’m rubbing off on him, or just the boys and this case. “(Y/N) and I will look into this.”

“Are you sure?” Callahan looks awkwardly between Hop and me. I assume he’s unsure if he wants to leave me alone with Hop, especially with how wild and out of it the Chief looks to an outsider. 

“Yeah, leave it,” Hop insists, pushing me slightly as a way of telling me to open the door. 

“Oh, hey. Uh, they found Barbara’s car,” Callahan continues before I can open the door. 

“What?” Hop and I ask at the same time, blood draining from my face. 

“Barbara Holland’s car, seems she ran away after all,” Powell adds, finishing the revelation for his partner. “Staties found it late last night at a bus station.”

“Funny, right?” Callahan adds, almost seeming to catch on that something is majorly off. “They keep doing our job for us.”

“Funny, right,” Hop and I say at the same time, this time he’s more forceful with shoving me towards the door. I quickly open it and he guides me inside, slamming the door shut behind him, putting distance between us and the prying eyes of our dense coworkers.

Once the door shuts I start to clean up the living room again, sighing at the knife made rips in the apoulster of his couch, too long for me to even consider sewing back up for him. I know he was freaking out, but there’s literally a zipper right there in the back, he could have used that instead of stabbing them. While I sweep up the broken light bulbs and try to salvage anything he threw across the room earlier, Hop focuses on fixing his phone, even going as far as to duct tape the mouthpiece back together. 

Once the living room is clean, or as clean as I can get it at this particular moment, I head to the bathroom to clean that up too. I avoid his bedroom though, I know how private and personal someone’s bedroom is, that’s why I threaten Nancy and Mike anytime they go snooping through mine. By the time I’m finished in the bathroom Hop has the phone fixed and is using it to call someone. Normally I wouldn’t snoop, he deserves his privacy, but my feet feel frozen in place when I hear a woman’s voice coming from the other side of the line. 

“I know, I know, I know I shouldn’t be calling you,” Hopper sighs into the phone, playing with the bracelet he made from Sara’s hair ties. “I just wanted to...I just wanted to say that, um...even after everything that happened, I don’t...I don’t regret any of it. And those seven years, they were...everything to me.”

My heart breaks at his words, and it continues to break for him when his ex wife asks if he’s been drinking again. I didn’t know my heart could ache for him anymore than it already did, not until I see Hop’s body tense when he hears a baby start crying from the other end. She’s moved on and he hasn’t. She gets a second chance at that happily ever after bullshit, and Hopper is the Chief of Police in a small town that seems to be overtaken by some crazy powerful and dangerous outside enemy that isn’t afraid to kill anyone in it’s way. 

“You know what, actually, I have been drinking, I’m sorry,” I frown as he starts to shut her out, it’s like I can see the walls he’s built over the years start to be reinforced. “Just take care of yourself, okay? Say hi to Bill for me.” Hop slams the receiver down, hanging up on his ex wife before she can respond, setting the phone on the coffee table in front of him.

“Hop,” I sigh, holding my dress in place as I slide down the dividing wall between his kitchen and living room next to him.

 As soon as my butt touches the ground his phone starts to ring, I glance between him and the aforementioned phone wondering if he’ll pick it up. He doesn’t, he makes no move to answer it, just letting it ring. He does, however, slide his left hand across the floor and close to my right one. Hops left pinky lifts off the ground, hooks around my right one, our hands resting on the floor with our pinky’s tightly entwined. We sit like that for what feels like a long while, at least twenty or thirty minutes. I start to wonder how many times Hop’s ex wife would have called had he not ripped the phone from the wall after the second unanswered one. 

“How ‘bout I teach you to shoot,” Hop turns to me, I can’t quite read the emotion in his blue eyes, but it’s almost like they're pleading with me to say yes. I nod back and he stands, pulling me from my seated position. 

“Should I take my heels off?” I glance down at by black pumps while Hop digs the empty beer cans, the ones the people from Hawkins lab left strewn about his coffee table, out of the trash. 

“Yeah, you’ll need good balance,” Hop heads for the door, beer cans cradled in his left arm, grabbing his firearm off the coffee table with his right hand as he passes it. 

I take off my heels as I start to head towards the door, tossing them carelessly behind me in the general direction of the ruined couch. Rushing in front of Hopper, now barefoot, I open the door for him so he doesn’t have to worry about shifting the beer cans around and possibly dropping any. I follow him out the door, towards the back of his trailer and the pond behind it. Hop drops the beer cans on the grass, grabbing one and setting it on a stump of wood, the gashes on the top of the wood lead me to believe that he uses this stump to chop wood. 

Hop hands me his police issued handgun, stepping behind me once I take it. Instinctually I wrap both of my hands around the handle, my dominant hand resting slightly higher, trigger finger on the side of the barrel. I have this much knowledge of holding a gun from observing Hop, for far too long, any time he has his weapon drawn. Hop gently kicks my right foot out so my feet are shoulder width apart, I move my dominant foot forward a tad, raising my arms in front of me. 

“‘Kay, now use the little bump out on the top as a guide,” his hands rest on my shoulders, before sliding down slightly to help me aim. “Line it up with the beer can and pull the trigger.”

I take a deep breath, anchoring myself to the ground for the blowback, pointer finger moving to the trigger and pulling it. I didn’t anchor myself well enough, falling back into Hop’s chest slightly. I’m too embarrassed from this new position to hear the sound of metal ripping through tin. 

“You did great kid,” Hop whispers into my ear, sending an involuntary shiver up my spine, a shiver I can’t hide from him since we’re still pressed together. Hop slides his hands from my upper arms to my forearms, pushing slightly to lower the gun towards the ground.

“Oh my god! I did it!” I screech louder than intended when I look up to the empty stump. The can is behind the wood, a bullet embedded in the center of the logo, I hit the target on my first try! 

I set the gun on the ground, turning, and jumping into Hop’s arms. My arms are tightly wrap around his neck, and his easily slide around my waist. He holds me close for longer than necessary, but not nearly long enough for my liking: every touch from Hopper is like an itch that can’t be scratched, every time I think I’ll be satisfied but it always leaves me wanting more. 

Once Hop unwraps himself from my hold, he moves to put another beer can on the stump. This time he stays off to the side, I’m left wondering if the hug is the cause of the new position or if Hop just wants me to try alone. We go through ten more empty beer cans, I hit every single one on the first try. Hop also teaches me how to load the clip and the gun, as well as unclip it and put the safety on. 

After Hop finishes teaching me how to protect myself, he grabs my heels when he goes inside to grab one of his coats and hat, and I grab his police department jacket from my car to wear. After grabbing the aforementioned things we get into his truck to warn Joyce that her house may be bugged too, and to let her n\know that Will is probably alive somewhere lost and confused.. Hop keeps glancing my way the entire car ride, and I just nervously play with the hem of my dress. I really don’t want to see Lonnie again, and I especially don’t want him to see Hop. If Lonnie says one bad thing to Hopper in front of me, I may just deck him.

Once we pull up to Joyce’s house, Hop finds an old takeout menu in his car and grabs the pen sticking out of my jacket pocket to write a note telling Joyce to be quiet. Hop finally opens his door and I practically sprint out of my side of the car, having forgone putting on my shoes, and up to the Byers front porch. I’m pounding on the door before Hop has closed his own car door. 

“Go away Lonnie!” I hear Joyce yell from inside the house. I wonder if Joyce has kicked Lonnie to the curb again, finally, as I continue to aggressively pound on the door. Hop joins me on the front porch just as Joyce rips the front door open. “Seriously? I am going to murder-”

Hop and I hold our fingers to our lips to shush an ax wielding Joyce, in Hop’s other hand he’s holding up the old take out menu with the message written on it. Joyce looks confused and a little scared at our random appearance on her doorstep, but she doesn’t fight us when Hop pushes his way into the house. 

“Oh Jesus,” Hop grumbles while I let out a quiet ‘shit’ at all of the Christmas lights hanging in the Byers’ house. 

Hop and I get to quickly unscrew every christmas light, thank God he’s being a lot more calm about it here than at his own place. After what feels like hours Hop unscrews the last light bulb only to find that there were no bugs planted in the Byers’ house. The two of us let out a large sigh as we plop down right next to each other on Joyce’s couch. Hop’s knee rubbing up against mine is all I can think about as he explains what happened to him the night before. I do start to tune back into the conversation when Hop tells Joyce that she was right all along. 

I don’t think I have ever seen Joyce more happy than she is at this moment, at least two people believe her and now there’s undeniable proof, at least to the three of us, that Will is still alive. Joyce pulls me up from the couch and into a bone crushing hug, the hope and joy she's radiating is infectious.

CFTF tags: @letaliabane @ilovethatforyou @gay-forspace @ffantasylandd @simplyjazzy666 @sarai-ibn-la-ahad @l0ve-0f-my-life @moonstarsandsongs @euphoniumpets @noshi-chan @astream-ofconsciousness @rentheanonymous @southsideacademythings @peter-beter-barker @tinynshykitten @captainstilinskis @krazykatkay456 @sara-stark-rogers

[sickbromeo]

as someone who does like keeping their sexuality unlabeled i have a lot of issues with the duffers if they keep will’s sexuality unlabeled.

throughout the entire show they have hinted at will being gay. they’ve hinted that he has a crush on mike. they’ve never shown him being interested in girls.

and now, now that they’ve hinted at it to the point where even straight people who are casual viewers of the show can see that will is definitely not straight, they wanna say “oh well we don’t need to label it” it’s fucking bullshit.

yes, not everyone and everything needs a label. but will is obviously written like a gay man and you’re doing more harm then good by not out right saying he is gay. now people can continue to belittle queer viewers of the show who think will’s gay by saying who it’s not canon, how he’s just straight and didn’t wanna grow up.

thinking about it i’m not shocked that the duffers would do something like this. their one other queer character, robin, someone who they weren’t even planning on making queer original, is obviously supposed to be a lesbian. she rejects steve by telling him about a crush she had on a girl and how she likes girls, trying to get steve to see that she doesn’t like boys at all. but they never have robin say lesbian, they never have steve say lesbian. because of this people are able to say that’s she not actually a lesbian and that it’s fine for them to ship her with man, when it’s not.

once again, yes it is 100% ok not to label yourself, i don’t label myself. but when you’ve made a character that is as queercoded as a gay man as will byers is, you’re not being “progressive” or whatever by not labeling him and leaving his sexuality “up for interpretation” you’re just making it so queer people can once again be called delusional for thinking a character they love and enjoy might also be queer like them.

[just-jordie-things]

Bite Me - Mike Wheeler

word count: 4052 warnings: swearing, unedited and poorly written summary: Mike has harbored a crush on (y/n) since the day they met.  And all it takes is a run-in with Billy Hargrove for him to lose his shit and let his feelings be known. (a/n): I just randomly felt the need to write for one of my best boys

___

(y/n) (y/l/n) was a sweet girl. If you asked anyone they’d tell you how kind she is, to everyone she meets.  From giving out homework answers when someone forgot, to sharing her lunch, she’d lend a hand no matter who you were.  She was a good person, and that’s why Mike was so in love with her.

He had been ever since she’d joined the Party, back in the fourth grade.  She’d been bringing in an extra juice box and snack for two weeks, just for Will, and the four boys agreed unanimously to offer her a spot in their group.  Mike can still remember the look on her face, the wide grin that showed off her recently lost tooth, and the way she’d giggled and agreed instantly.

They taught her D&D, she was invited into Will’s fort, and taken in by Joyce as one of her own.  She was truly one of them.

She didn’t look at him like everyone else did, it’s one of the first things he’d noticed about her, and he could see it every time their eyes met.  That annoyed expression that he was used to receiving -from peers, from his parents, even Nancy, even their friends- he’d grown so accustomed to it, until he’d met her.

“Fuck you! Fuck you!” Mike was shouting, about to lunge towards Steve, before (y/n) and Dustin grabbed his arms to yank him back.  “We can’t just stay here and-”

“That’s exactly what we’re doing!” Steve shouted back, shoving a scolding finger in the younger boy’s face.  “We’re staying here, so I can keep you dipshits safe!”

Steve rolled his eyes before spinning around to leave.  Nothing stressed him out like these kids.

“Come on, we’ll figure something else out” (y/n) said quietly, and tugged on Mike’s arm a little more.  

His glare softened when he turned to her.

She nods her head off to the side, prompting him to walk off with her.  He groaned, but he followed when she pulled him towards the living room.  Her hand didn’t let go of his wrist until they were away from everyone else.

“You know nothing you could say right now is gonna make me less pissed off-”

“I know,” (y/n) giggles before he can start ranting again.  “But maybe you can just take a breath and pretend to calm down?” She hums, and she laughs again.

Mike groans loudly, loud enough that everyone in the house could hear him, before he threw himself down onto the sofa.

(y/n) just shook her head, and sat next to him.

“Steve’s just trying to keep us safe, Mike,” She says, voice just as soft, but a bit more serious now.  “He’s not doing this to make you mad, you get that, right?”

He nods, but hangs his head in his hands.

“Are you… um… upset because El’s out there?” She asked unsurely.

She had a pretty good feeling that Mike had a crush on Eleven.  He was distraught when she left, and since she’d come back (a few hours ago) he’s been extremely on edge.  Hence the pouting right now.

“I guess,” He shrugged.  “I just- I want to just-”

“I know,” (y/n) murmurs again.  “I get it”

She admired Mike’s need to help, to get involved.  He was brave, if not a little reckless as well.  But there was something sweet about his extreme need to help.  Even though she was still convinced he was only wired this way because of his crush on Eleven.

Mike looked over to her, finding that loving look on her face.  His favorite expression -maybe even his favorite thing- and it somehow calmed him down a bit.  She smiled when he hadn’t started grumbling again.

“You good now?” She asked.

“Yeah,” He sighed.  “I’ll be fine”

She grinned, and poked his cheek affectionately before getting up from the couch.  

“I’m gonna get a glass of water and make sure Steve’s calmed down too,” She told him.  “Guess I’m the only sane one around here”

He laughed a bit as she left the room.

“Steve?” (y/n) called gently as she approached her older friend.

He turned to her, an unamused, and rather annoyed, look on his face.

“You alright?”

“I will be, once I’m in a retirement home and have restraining orders placed on all of you,” He answered, making the girl laugh.  “Your boyfriend calm down yet?” He asked, and her laughter stopped almost instantly.

Steve was chuckling now at how red her cheeks were turning.

“He’s not-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, heard it before, pretended to believe it before, whatever,” He said, and (y/n) busied herself with getting a drink.  “Now’s as good a time as any to just, you know, confess.  You’re stuck here anyways”

“No I… I can’t um…” She shakes her head, staring down at the bottle of water she’d grabbed from the fridge.  “I can’t do that” She finished weakly.

Steve had known (y/n) for a few years now.  He’d met her the first night he’d hung out with Nancy in the Wheeler home, she’d been there with Mike coming up with a new character for D&D.  His first impression, as it was for all of the kids, was that she was a geek.  And she was, but she was a lot of other things too, and what stood out the most to him was her kindness.  She didn’t exactly fit in with the Party like the boys seemed to.  Not only because she was a girl, but because she was… friendly.

Mike wasn’t cruel to Steve by any means, but he was a snarky little shit that sometimes made Steve just want to-

“Why the hell do you like that little asshole so much anyways?”

(y/n) was still blushing as she shrugged her shoulders.

He’d picked up on her little crush one of the first times she’d met him.  He called her out on it right away too, luckily only Dustin had heard, and he’d laughed it off, thinking it was a joke.

It wasn’t.

“He’s such a piece of shit,” Steve said through a laugh, earning a pointed glare from (y/n).  “Obviously he doesn’t treat you the same way he treats, well, everyone else”

“No, he doesn’t,” (y/n) sighed lovingly.  

Her eyes glanced out to the living room, where Mike and Lucas were heatedly, and quietly, arguing.  She rolled her eyes at the sight, not that it surprised her.

“He’s very, um-”

“Sweet on you?” Steve supplied, earning another look, which quickly turned into a nervous smile.  “Yeah, that’s how I’d put it.  I don’t know why you’re being such a baby about it.  He obviously has a little crush on you too,” Steve said, wagging his finger around in her face.  “Otherwise he wouldn’t be such a little gentleman towards you”

(y/n) didn’t say anything else, but she didn’t have to for Steve to know how she felt.  He’d always known.  She didn’t do a great job at hiding it, but her friends, and Mike for that matter, were oblivious.

They were interrupted by a bright light shining in through the windows, bright enough that she shielded her eyes as she wandered out to the large picture window.

“Who is that?” She asked, as everyone gathered around to figure out who could show up at the Byers’ house right now.

Their question was quickly answered.

“Sinclair!”

The angry, dangerous voice sent a shiver all the way down (y/n’s) spine, before an uneasy feeling settled in her stomach.  Billy Hargrove was bad news, but him being here, right now, was even worse.

“Stay inside” Steve ordered, shoving the kids down underneath the window.

“I know you’re in there!” Billy screamed again from outside.

“Stay inside” Steve repeated, before walking out of the house.

“What the fuck does he think he’s gonna do?” Lucas asked, as everyone peeked their heads up just enough so they could see what was going on outside.

“He’s gonna fight him” Dustin said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

“He’ll lose,” Max mumbled.  All eyes turned to her, but her gaze was trained on her brother, afraid.  “He’ll kill him”

“He’ll be okay,” (y/n) whispered to her new friend.  “Steve’s a tough guy, and can throw a punch-”

“I’m not so sure he can take one, though” Max said.

(y/n) frowned, and set a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“We’ll be alright” She assured, even though she wasn’t certain what was going to happen.

Steve was now walking down to Billy, who was still yelling, but they couldn’t make out what exactly.

“What’s he saying?” Mike hissed, only to get shushed by Dustin, thus starting a ‘shh!’ war.

(y/n) only let it go on until Billy shoved Steve back by his shoulders.

“Boys!” She scolded, sitting up a little straighter as the fight outside escalated.

Just as she’d sat up, Mike grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her back down.

“You want to get seen and murdered?” He whisper screamed.  She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide her sweet smile.  His brow furrowed at her smile, but he wasn’t quick enough to say anything about it, as everyone’s attention was pulled back to the scene outside.

Billy had shoved Steve to the ground, and was racing up to the house now.  He locked eyes with the Party, who all quickly leaned down as low to the floor as they could get.

“Lucas, run!” Max screamed, shoving the boy to haul ass before her brother could storm in and get his hands on him.

When the door swung open so hard it slammed against the wall, Mike grabbed (y/n) by both arms and just about ripped them out of their sockets as he pulled her upwards with him to get her as far fucking away from Billy as possible.

“We have to help Lucas!” She tried telling him while he dragged her off to the other side of the house.  “Mike!” She shoved his hands off of her, and gave him a pleading look.  “This isn’t like you, come on, he needs our-”

“Where are you, Sinclair!? Come on out!”

She ran away from Mike before he could convince her to hide.

Finding Lucas shoved up against the wall, something in her clicked.  Billy’s significantly larger framed towered over the boy, who was clearly afraid, while Billy snarled nasty things right in his face.

“Why don’t you just fuck off?” She yelled at him, before thinking through the consequences of her actions.

Dustin and Mike stared at her in shock.  She didn’t curse much, so to hear the foul word come out in her voice was… pretty out of character.

Just as Billy whirled around, likely about to send one knockout punch to her face, Lucas took his moment of distraction to knee him right between the legs.  (y/n) squealed, both hands covering her mouth in surprise.

It was then that she took Mike’s advice to run back into the kitchen, and duck down behind the cabinets so she was out of sight.  

“You’re fucking dead!” Billy howled in pain, and while every bone in (y/n’s) body told her to cover her ears, close her eyes, and stay hidden, she peeked around the corner anyways.

“No,” A different voice, a calm voice, a familiar voice, spoke up.

(y/n) had never been so relieved to see Steve in her whole life.

“You are” He finished, and took a strong swing of his fist against Billy’s jaw.

The crack that resonated made her wince, and she shut her eyes only for a moment as illy toppled backwards.  He didn’t fall, and instead swung back at Steve, starting a very violent fistfight in the Byers’ kitchen.

“Come on, you gotta move” A pair of arms encircled her torso and helped her up from the ground.  

Mike’s hands were much more gentle with her now than they had been a few minutes ago, and this time she let him bring her out to the living room, away from the fight.

Her eyes were wide with fear as she watched Billy throw Steve around the kitchen effortlessly.  It was terrifying, she felt as though she was about to see him get killed.

When he landed a rather harsh punch, right under Steve’s chin, she cried out for him.

Steve crumbled to the ground, definitely knocked unconscious.  He looked dead, though, and as the thought crossed her mind, she felt it again.  The snap.  Like an instinct buried deep was just let loose.

“You motherfucking piece of shit!” She screamed in a way that Mike, or any of them, had ever heard before, and was charging at Billy in an instant.

It was a hasty decision, grabbing the beautiful vase of flowers off of Joyce Byers’ table and throwing it full force at the back of Billy’s head.

While his head was soaked, and definitely bleeding from the shards of glass, he still managed to stay standing, and was fuming with anger as he glared down at (y/n).

“You made a big mistake little girl” He growled, and began to stalk towards her in a threatening manner.

“Bite me” She snarled back at him, followed by the rash decision to spit on him.

“(y/n) what the hell are you-!?”

Mike’s warning was cut off when Billy reached her, and she kicked him with all the force she could right in the gut.  He grunted, but it hardly slowed him down.  All she could see was red as she kicked him again, and began to throw her fists against his chest.

She didn’t have an ‘oh fuck’ moment until he grabbed her wrists in his large hands, and kept his hold so firm that tears welled in her eyes from the pressure.

“I’m gonna fucing kill you, little girl” He snarled, teeth bared right in her face.

Oh, fuck.

She tried to yank her body backwards, out of his grip, but he was faster, and stronger, and bigger than her.  This resulted in her being thrown, no, slammed into the nearest wall.  She cried at the crack of her skull against it, but had no time to react as Billy’s fist was all she could see, before it struck her and knocked her out instantaneously.

She fell like a limp, broken thing, and even when Mike grabbed her and shook her by her shoulders, she remained unconscious.  It didn’t matter that Billy was still looking for blood, he pulled her into his lap and held her close against his chest.  He was living a delusion thinking he could protect either of them if Billy came back for more, but he didn’t care.  He was gonna keep her safe now.

Max had plunged the syringe into her brother’s neck, and was threatening him with Steve’s bat, but Mike hardly paid them any attention.

“(y/n), wake up, come on,” His voice was barely a mumble, and he hated to admit it but his throat was growing hot and tight with his tears choking him up.  “C-come on open your eyes” He stuttered.

He pushed her hair out of her face so that it wouldn’t get sticky from the blood running out of her nose.  He wiped away the red substance with his sleeve, not bothered by it at all.

“We’re going!” Lucas called, and rushed over to Mike to help him carry her.  “Dustin Will and Max are getting Steve in the back.  I’ll help you with her”

Mike didn’t have time to question anything Lucas had just said, and hastily went along with the plan.  They looped (y/n’s) arms over both of their shoulders, and made their way out to Billy’s car. ___

Everything.

Hurt.

It was the first thing that (y/n) was aware of when she came to.  Her legs, her arms, her torso, her head-

Oh shit my head hurts.

She groaned softly, reaching a shaky hand up to prod around her eye.  She wasn’t exactly sure why, but it was definitely bruised.  The rest of her body had to have been bruised too.

She suddenly shot upward as the car went over a bump, and that’s when she realized she was even in a car.  Why was she in a car…?

Her head rolled against the seat, and she was met with someone’s shoulder against her cheek.  She winced at the pressure, probably because her cheek was bruised and bleeding.

“(y/n)?” A gentle, but distant voice called.  It sounded kind of hazy, like the person talking was miles away, and not right next to her.  “Hey, can you hear me?”

Her eyes met Mike’s round and worried brown ones, and a lazy smile tugged on the edges of her lips.  Even though his brow was furrowed, and there was a deep frown on his lips.

“What happened?” She asked, voice scratchy and quiet.

“What happened?” Mike repeated, much louder than he intended.  She flinched, and while an apologetic look swept over his face, he didn’t apologize.  “(y/n), you attacked Billy Hargrove” He told her in a grave tone.

“I did?” She asked proudly, her smile returning.

“No- don’t- jesus (y/n) what the hell are you on?” He asked.  “He almost killed you, I mean, look at you!”

“Can you please stop yelling dipshit?” Max called from the front.  “I’m trying to focus here!”

(y/n’s) eyes widened, and it dawned on her that Max was the one driving.  But just as she opened her mouth to protest being in the car right now, Mike continued on with his angry little rant.

“I mean, seriously, what the hell, (y/n/n)? Did you think you were gonna win? Did you really think that you were gonna take him down?”

Her brow crinkled and her eyes welled with tears, both from all the pain and his cruel words.

“Do you even realize that he could’ve killed you? Huh? I mean, I really thought he did for a second.  Do you even care?”

“What’s your problem right now?” The girl whimpered

“You are! You’re my problem,” He said, not thinking through the fact that she was crying right now.  “That was really stupid (y/n), really reckless”

“Oh, because you care so much about playing it safe,” She scoffed.

It was getting awkward for the others in the car, minus Steve, who was still knocked out.

“All you wanted to do tonight was to get out there- well- well here we are, Mike!” She shouted.  It hurt her head to yell, and Max was yelling again too, but she drowned it out.  “Hope you’re freakin’ happy” She mumbled, holding her hands against the side of her head.

Mike sighed, and pulled her hands away from her face, staring at her seriously.

“(y/n)...” He said softly.  “I’m sorry it’s just…” He let out one more heavy breath to prepare himself before diving in.  “Look at yourself (y/n), you’re hurt and there’s- there’s nothing I can do about it”

(y/n’s) brow furrowed as she stared back at him.

“What do you mean?” She mumbled weakly.

“I mean I- you… I have to… ugh” He groaned, clearly frustrated by his inability to form a coherent thought.

“You have to… what?” She hummed, face leaning around his shoulder tiredly.  

They were close enough that their whispers were only heard by them.  And somehow, it felt like they were the only people in the car.

“Mike?” She whispered when he hadn’t said anything yet.

His eyes flickered over her battered face.  The black eye, her split lip, her bruised and cut cheek, his heart broke looking at how much pain she must be in right now.  He couldn’t believe he let this happen.

“...protect you” He answered lamely.

“Protect me?” She repeats, soft, and loving.  “From what?”

“Apparently everything from interdimensional monsters to senior year bullies” He said, making her laugh softly.

“You don’t have to do that,” She said with a small shake of her head.  “I’m alright, I will be anyways.  You don’t have to worry so much about me-”

“See I do though- you- you make it impossible not to worry.  I’m just always- I’m a mess, okay?”

She giggled again, and rose a brow.

“I’m not following…you sound kinda crazy Mike-”

“I love you, okay?” He told her.

She choked.

“And I just need you to not get yourself hurt… okay?”

She’d never heard him speak so quietly, so nervously.

“You- you’re- um-”

“No more fighting people- and-and things- bigger than you, deal?”

His hands cupped around her face, thumb stroking over the bruise on her cheekbone in a comforting sort of way.  She swore she was melting into his touch, for a moment she forgot all about the agony her body was in.

She didn’t think twice about leaning off his shoulder so she could reach up and plant her lips against his.  It’s a gentle kiss, because her lips are sore and she was a bit nervous.  

Mike’s eyes widened, and he was sure this wasn’t real.  No, it couldn’t be real, there was no way (y/n) was kissing him.  Maybe he was the one that got knocked out? And this is all some kind of twisted nightmare-dream?

But it was real, she was kissing him.  And it was… wow it was great.

She’d almost pulled away, but he pulled her right back in, and shut his eyes to kiss her properly this time.

If he was being honest, he wanted nothing more than to just take her and pour every ounce of love he had for her into this kiss, but it would probably only hurt her more.

They were cut off by a low whistle, and (y/n) turned to see Steve, who had apparently been sat next to her this whole time, and Dustin, who was sat on his other side, both giving the pair very different looks.

Despite his face looking just as messed up as hers, Steve pulled a sly grin, and winked.

Dustin, however, looked like he might vomit.

“What.  The.  Fuck!?” His voice cracked when he screamed, making both (y/n) and Mike jump a bit in their seat.  “You guys have been- been- hooking up this whole time!?”

“What? No!” (y/n) argued back, shaking her head and trying to kill the idea in Dustin’s head before it escalated, but it seemed to be too late for that.  

“You have! You’ve been frenching!”

“Oh my god,” Mike rolled his eyes.  “Dustin, shut up”

“Can we save this argument for later, fellas?” Max hollered from the front.  “I don’t think that this is the most important thing going on-”

“W-wait a- wait a minute- wait a-!” Steve’s eyes widened as he started to panic.  “No! No way! Stop the car right now! Who let her drive-!?”

His screaming was abruptly cut off by the car swerving, causing everyone to scream now.

“Drive on the right side of the road! Jesus Christ we’re all gonna die!”

(y/n) wrapped both arms around Mike, one behind his neck and the other around his torso, keeping her secure.  In case this car were to crash, her seatbelt, and Mike, would anchor her in place.  Well, she hoped it would anyways.

He reacted quickly, embracing her tightly.

“I’ve been thinking I would get killed by a demogorgon,” She mumbled to him.  “Guess it’ll just be a plain old car crash that takes me out”  

He chuckled, but shook his head at her.

“No one’s dying, we had a deal”

She glanced up at him, a sweet smile on her lips.  And she waited for him to look back down at her to say anything.

“I love you too” She hummed, just soft enough that Dustin (luckily) couldn’t hear.

The smile that grew on Mike’s face was brighter than she’d ever seen from him before.  (y/n) was so relieved that her feelings were returned, that she felt she could go back to sleep, if she wasn’t getting nervous all over again about what was going to happen.

All they had to do now was to kill a monster and save their friends.

___

xoxo ~ jordie

[strangertheories]

What (gay) Will Byers means to me

Several years ago, I decided to give Stranger Things a try. Season 3 had just came out and I heard about Robin (and how she was gay). At that point in time, I was trying to watch pretty much every show with a lesbian character in it so this made me pretty excited. But whilst Robin was meaningful to me, the one character I felt truly represented by was Will Byers.

Now a quick disclaimer: I'm a lesbian born in the 2000s and have not been to an alternate dimension at any point so obviously I'm not going to relate to everything Will goes through.

Okay now onto my post. This is going to be more of a personal/vent post so it feels only natural to start it off with an unnecessarily long storytime. When I was in my early teens, I realized that I really liked girls at pretty much the exact same time my female friends realized that they really liked guys. Worst of all, I had a crush on my most boy-obsessed friend. Suddenly all my friend group would talk about is their boyfriends or their crushes or whichever celebrity they thought was cute. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but I was surrounded by this overwhelming hype for guys and I felt none of it. I came to the dawning realization that I wasn't ever going to like boys like they did and it was rough; I felt incredibly isolated but I couldn't talk to anyone about it to them because I was afraid to tell people that I was gay. In the end, I left my close friend group over this because every time I hung out with them I felt either bored or miserable. I went through all of this around the time I watched Stranger Things and I think you can see where this is going.

When I watched Will in Season 3 I didn't see a kid who was just immature, I saw myself for one of the first times. Everything felt so real and relatable, from the jealousy over your friend's partner to the thought that maybe that jealousy came from a non-platonic place. To me, Will was clearly gay (for Mike) and going through the same things I'd struggled with. I felt very seen and ever since then, Will Byers has been one of my 'emotional support' characters and watching him really helped me feel a bit less isolated and alone, even if he wasn't real. This is why I care that Will is gay; to say that he felt all of these weird, confusing and authentic feelings because he just needed to grow up and become straight would just be such a slap in the face and to have the character I grew such an attachment to just be going through a childish phase would be heartbreaking to me and to (I believe) many other queer fans of Stranger Things.

Before I finish this post, I'd like to tell another quick story. A couple of months ago, I rewatched Stranger Things with my parents and when we got to the 'it's not my fault you don't like girls' scene, my mother turned to me and said 'that's just like you, but with guys'. At the time I thought to myself that this comment was very funny as I am still not out to my parents but later on it kept on coming back to me. Both me and my mother were able to understand why having boy-crazy best friends was difficult for me and whilst she didn't magically realize I was gay at that exact moment, I do think it made her understand what I've been going through a bit more.

This made me realize that characters like Will are more than being just representation; they help others empathise with an experience that they'll never have to go through. But most importantly, they make people who have realized they don't like the opposite gender or people who have feelings for their friend that they are not alone.

Realising you don't like the opposite gender at the same time everyone around you discovers they do is tough. Having a queer crush can be scary. But characters like Will Byers can help people going through this kind of thing feel a lot less isolated. It certainly had that affect on me. And whilst I still have these issues, I know that Will Byers is always there to remind me that I'll get through this. ❤️

Also, Byler rights!

[steddie-fanfic-recs]

Remember What You're Looking At Is Me

by Kwills91

Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley/Vickie Character: Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Argyle (Stranger Things), Vickie (Stranger Things), Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Joyce Byers, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Will Byers, Robin Buckley's Mother, Robin Buckley's Father, Wayne Munson Additional Tags: Eddie Munson Has a Crush on Steve Harrington, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Gay Eddie Munson, Slow Burn, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Mutual Pining, Steve Harrington Has a Bisexual Awakening, Smoking, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Steve Harrington Has PTSD, Panic Attacks, Psychological Trauma, Eddie Munson Lives, Because screw the Duffer brothers, Gay Panic, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Steve Harrington is Bad at Feelings, Hurt Steve Harrington, Good Babysitter Steve Harrington, Good Babysitter Eddie Munson, Smut, BDSM, Bottom Steve Harrington, Top Eddie Munson, Found Family, past suicidal thoughts/ideation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Almost Kiss, I'm British - so is my spelling, No Beta, All The Queer Characters, Spit Kink, Period-Typical Homophobia Words: 53,964 Chapters: 19/19

Summary

“Man, I didn’t know you cared so much, Harrington.” See. Always with the jokes. His voice is hoarse, gravelly. Steve stands straight again, looking at him through the tears. He’s smirking, in that flirty way he did in the RV. “You look like shit.” Despite himself, Steve chuckles and quickly flips him the bird.

“I thought you were in a coma.” Steve says simply, tears still rolling down his face. He doesn’t know how to stop them. Feels like they’ll never stop. “I woke up this afternoon. You going to stand there all night, or you gonna come and sit down?” Eddie tilts his head towards the chair next to his bed. Steve is scared. Doesn’t want to get to close. Doesn’t want to hurt him. But he goes anyway. He drops down in the chair, struggling to look Eddie in the eyes. Settles on staring at the bed instead. Elbows propped against it, fists balled under his chin. “Yeah, you’re not looking to great yourself, you know.” Steve tries at a smile, not sure if he achieves it, but he feels Eddie brighten. Doesn’t see it. Still can’t look. “They said you patched me up good, Stevie. You saved my life.” He laughs to himself. “Who’d have thought it, eh? King Steve crying over Eddie the Freak.”

[sugarcubetikki]

The show literally presents the reason to why Mike can't tell El he loves her initially is because he's insecure as El is so special whilst he's just some random nerd and he's scared that she won't need him anymore so he feels unworthy of her love. However, Mike realises that's not the case because he's told that El needs him, that El commissioned a painting for him planning every detail in it, that he's the heart of the group especially to El, that El felt lost without him because she's different and when you're different you can feel like a mistake but El feels like she isn't a mistake around him and she feels better for being different when he's around and that gives her the courage to fight on and that if El seemed mean or pushed him away it's because she was just as afraid to lose him like he was.

And that's what contributes to his development in terms of his relationship with El and that's what helps him grandly confess his love for her because he's reminded that he's "the heart" to her.

And the person telling him all of this isn't El. All of this doesn't come out of El's mouth as it should. It's his supposed best friend Will Byers telling him this and what his best friend Will Byers actually means telling Mike all this is that...

"I need you too. I made you this painting just like I used to make you art when we were kids, you're holding a heart shield on the painting because to me you're heart of the group you're everyone's emotional support you've always been the leader kept the party together since the very first day and without you we'd all fall apart especially me because you were always there for me when I was going through the hardest times you stood by me, supported me and believed me when I was possessed by the Mind Flayer. But we grew up and grew apart, I felt lost without you not just because I moved because you stopped reaching out I stopped reaching out and things were different between us because I'm different. I realised I'm not like you or the rest as we grew apart when you all got girlfriends and cared about nothing else. When you're different, you can feel like a mistake and I felt like that having these feelings for you was a mistake. I was supposed to grow up and get a girlfriend like you did but all I wanted to do is stay in your basement forever and play d&d with you to be honest. When I'm around you I feel better for being different and you give me the courage to fight on in every d&d game we've ever played and in real life that's why I didn't surrender not when I was taken nor when I took a risk for the party the night before. If I seemed mean or pushed you away, I was just as afraid to lose you like you said you were back in Lenora in my bedroom and I was so glad to hear that you felt the same way and that this isn't unfixable that we haven't completely grown apart and that the part of you that stayed by my side when we were younger is still in there somewhere."

Everything he said referred to his own feelings, not El's. It's unique to him and AS YOU CAN SEE I LITERALLY BACKED UP ALL HIS WORDS WITH HIS POSSIBLE THOUGHT PROCESSES IN THAT SCENE AND I BET YOU IF I TRIED TO DO THAT IN TERMS OF HOW IT WOULD LINE UP WITH EL OR MIKE I WOULD STRUGGLE TO DO THAT AS SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS SO BASIC (imagine "I asked Will to make you this painting on my behalf because I can't paint as well as him and I know I lied in my letter about it possibly being for Will's crush but I wanted it to be a surprise" like please how does that even sound). The fact that a reminder of these words filled with Will's emotional intent helped drive the M*leven love confession because Mike thinks Will's words were actually El's will forever be the weirdest thing ever and I want to clown and say it's intentional because honestly what the hell was wrong with the writers during this volume they didn't do byler and can't even write m*leven properly why?!