1) Mike & Will in season 1
In the first season Mike's focus is not on Will alone, the focus of the narrative and the focus of the camera is on his reactions to Will's fate and are enough to show that these two characters will have ( in the future ) more relevance to each other compared to the others but from observing Mike's reactions they are not that much different from the other Party members, they add a level of drama by having the moment in which he finds out that Will's body was found in the quarry be more sad and heartbreaking for Mike when they focus on him believing that El betrayed his trust and he not only thinks he lost one of his best friends in the whole world but also that he's being lied to about something this much important from one of the new friends he made- by this point he considers El to be one of his friends too and that's exactly what he says to her after he goes back home and she's in his house again, he takes her in anyway even feeling betrayed and tells her he did think of her as a friend and he now feels like he lost two people... Not only one!
But then she finds a way to have his trust back by making him listen to Will singing on the radio and this not only brings him back hope to see his best friend again but also gives him back a friend and makes him feel grateful towards her...
When Will is finally back home he's shown to be worried about his wellbeing and the camera focuses on him when Will starts coughing but the reactions Mike has are the same reactions Lucas has in the first seasons towards Will and even Dustin, all of them cry for him, all of them risk their own well-being for Will and decide to go into the woods and they are really happy to have Will back at the end of the season and eager to talk with him and play d&d again etc...
Mike is being established as the leader of the group in season 1 so he's the one that has the most focus on for who gets the group to start this- he's the one that inspires them to go out to search for another party member because as Will said, Mike is the heart and he wouldn't have left any of them to just be missing without him and the others going to at least TRY to find them!
Mike is the leader but I do believe the focus on him is also because the writers intended to connect Will to him later on, either because it was already planned that Will would be one of his love interests or just because they knew Will was intended to be gay and had already decided Mike was gonna be the one Will fell for eventually... I'm inclined to believe they did want to slowly build them as a future couple in a crescendo and started to place some small foreshadowing in the framing in particular and with the focus on Mike's heartbreak-
At this point of the story I don't think Mike was aware of having any sort of romantic feelings for Will, he was still his first friend and his best friend and he would have done anything for him and to have him back safe but it would have been the same for any other party member because they purposefully place the whole storyline about Mike jumping from the cliff for Dustin's safety right after he told him they were all his best friends in the middle of the season so that it was clear to the audience which type of character Mike has in general and why he does deserve to be the leader and to be considered the heart, they show just how much Mike's character cares about all of his friends and how compassionate and kind he can be!
They start to create a window into mike's heart and show how big it is, how he's capable of loving and being loyal to so many people at the same time and I do believe we see that after season 1 even after he starts feeling insecure about himself and that starts to make him falter a little and become a bit more self concerned because of that, his focus shifts too much into keeping El in his life to the point he slowly loses himself in the process and becomes lost, Will is the one that brings him back to himself regularly
34 notes
·
View notes
We wanted to share some extra prompts and headcanons related to our Bylerween themes! We will be posting these here and there as we get closer to our Bylerween event.
These are to help inspire anyone interested in participating in Bylerween (feel free to work off of these ideas!)… or just for anyone in a spooky Byler mood as we're approaching October. 😈🎃🗡️🧛
Day 1: Horror AU
Dexter AU: Mike is a serial killer that kills other serial killers, working for the police department under Hopper. Hopper, however, believes something's off about him, especially since Mike is dating his son Will, who is not only Mike's childhood best friend but also a survivor of a serial killer named the Shadow Monster.
Bones and All AU: Will has a hunger in him that normal food can't satiate. It's hard on his family, knowing that trauma and Lonnie's genetics is the reason for Will's acquired taste. To stop being a burden, Will leaves and hitch hikes with fellow eater Mike Wheeler, while they evade another eater nicknamed Vecna that wants Will's companionship.
True Blood AU: Mike and the rest of the human world know that vampires exist, live among them, and also do business with them in this modern AU. Mike inherits his Nana Wheeler's large Southern Gothic house and encounters the mysterious vampire Will.
56 notes
·
View notes
when Mike and Will are in first grade, they attempt to run away. This is spurred by two things: Lonnie Byers’ general presence, and the boys’ current favorite book series, the Boxcar Children. The thought of living in a train car seems super cool to them, and since they live so near to train tracks, they figure that there must be an abandoned train car or two somewhere nearby. They begin trying to gather supplies—as discreetly as two six year olds are able to, which isn’t very discrete. Jonathan, age 11, finds out almost immediately. When he tries to convince them why it’s a bad idea, they—with their little kid logic—actually convince him to go along with it, at least for a little bit. With the condition that he goes with (after all, there’s an older sibling taking care of the kids in BCC, right?). He helps them pack a little better, maybe talks to Joyce about the kids going on a camping trip (to get away from Lonnie for the weekend), maybe implying (lying) that there will be Actual Adults there with them. And there’s no need to make excuses to Mike’s parents—Karen is pregnant with Holly and the whole house is focused on getting ready for the new baby. Karen will likely just think he’s at the Byers’ house. So over a weekend (starting on a Friday after school), Mike, Will, and Jonathan go exploring— looking for a boxcar or any abandoned train car—mostly looking along the train tracks. They eventually find the Junkyard—which the kiddos get excited about anyway (even Jon bc Boxcar Children was his book first shut up), so they proceed to search for hidden gems. They find a bunch of little treasures (a cracked but useable magnifying glass, an old working radio, and even a set of slightly cracked dishes in the trunk of one of the cars), but their biggest discovery is an old Bus. Jonathan tells them that, at least for tonight, it’s almost as good as a boxcar. Mike and Will immediately agree and the trio set out to make the space livable (to kid standards, at least). Set up their blankets and sleeping bags, etc. Jonathan reads to them (from the Boxcar children ofc). And the weekend goes along in a similar vein. The younger boys get homesick by Sunday morning, ofc, so they agree that the Bus can be Their secret place that they go to sometimes. Like the boxcar in the Children’s backyard. (And then Jonathan forgets about it after a while bc I completely forgot about the whole bit in S1E7 where they’re trying to find the kids—won’t remember til they go to pick up the Party and then Jon will want to hit himself for forgetting. The rest of the Party (once they become friends) don’t know about it. It stays a Mike and Will thing—until the Bus is p much destroyed in S2 RIP Bus). Joyce never finds out. (At least not for a v long time—maybe it’s one of the memories Mike uses when Will is possessed by the MF) Not about This run away attempt anyway.
Will tries to run away the second time when they’re in fourth grade. Again, mostly bc Lonnie Byers and his A+ parenting. And plus Will thinks one less child might make things easier on his mom. By this time, Lucas and Dustin are their friends too (and thus voices of reason, bc Mike is an enabler who probably immediately offered up his basement). So they’re talking about it—going over the pros and cons (Mike is still advocating for his basement), but Karen happens to overhear and it’s immediately Game Over: Joyce is told. She is, ofc, devastated. And they have a long talk about how much she would miss him if he were gone (ouch I hurt myself😃). So that’s the last time he actually tries to run away (Joyce gives brief thought that that might be what’s happened at the beginning of S1, but with the confirmation that Mike is Not in the Know, she thinks it’s v unlikely).
(And then during/after the divorce, if Will wants to run away, he either runs to Mike’s house to spend the night, or he runs to Castle Byers… He runs to it in the Upside Down. He runs to it after his possession has been lifted—as his friends (Mike) begin to pull away. And, after a Fight with Mike, he runs to it one last time…then there’s no longer any place in Hawkins Will can run away to.)
When they move to Lenora, Will thinks about running away back to Hawkins. He doesn’t go through with it though, because Mike hasn’t really been responding to his letters, and thus there’s no one to conspire with. Plus, with El, he doesn’t want to leave her alone. She’s quickly become a sister to him, and he knows (even tho school sucks for her), she likely wouldn’t want to run away from Joyce and Jonathan—considering she already lost Hop.
Once Will and Mike get together post-whatever happens in s5, Will tells him about almost running away to Hawkins (to Mike), and, it turns out, Mike had almost the exact same thought (esp when he couldn’t come for Christmas). Like he told Will during SB, Hawkins isn’t the same without Will there. They talk about ‘running away’ from Hawkins after they graduate high school—basically going to college out of state. “It’s not really running away if I’m with you, though. You’re home.” Michael Wheeler is full of cheese.
58 notes
·
View notes
Byler Week 2023 Day 1: Cleradin
Disclaimer: I don’t know shit about dnd
https://archiveofourown.org/works/45898879
------
In Will’s opinion sneaking past a horde of trolls shouldn’t be this difficult. It really shouldn’t.
They have done things like this for what feels like millions of times. They know when it’s smarter to sneak around and try to be invisible instead of fighting a losing fight. They had all agreed that this was one of those situations. It should have been easy.
Except it apparently wasn’t.
Will doesn’t like pointing accusatory fingers at anyone but this time there is very clearly a person who is more guilty for causing problems than the rest of them.
On the other hand, it probably shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise.
Mike has been distracted lately. Like really distracted. He zones out during meetings he’s supposed to be leading and then keeps snapping at people when they ask him what’s going on. Even Will hadn’t got a good answer out of him.
Right now Mike being distracted by some unknown force leads them in quite a pickle.
He was supposed to lead them quietly around the trolls but somehow he ended up running straight into one. Like almost literally running into one.
The troll had deemed the ground next to the path as a suitable place for a nap and Mike had tripped on its legs and faceplanted straight to the ground.
As you can probably guess, the troll didn’t really like the rude awakening and neither did its friends. It took about five seconds for all the other trolls to notice and surround them.
If they make it out of here alive, Will is either forcing Mike to talk about his problems or just straight up strangling him for being an idiot. (It’s the first option if it wasn’t obvious.)
Fighting the trolls turned out to be just as challenging and tiring as they had thought it would be. Hence why they were supposed to sneak around.
It wasn’t going great. Dustin had either run out of combat spells or just gotten bored of them seeing how he was smacking the troll closest to him in the head with his lute. Will could also see Lucas struggling with his bow, his weaponry wasn’t really suited for close range combat.
Mike was trying to simultaneously fight two trolls twice his size and it wasn’t going great either. Someone had knocked his helmet out of his head and his long hair kept blinding his vision.
Normally Will liked Mike’s long hair but right now he cursed himself for not forcing Mike to sit down for a few minutes and let him braid it like he had always wanted to.
Snap out of it Will! he told himself. He can’t think about Mike’s hair right now or it’s going to get him killed. They were all going to get killed if he didn’t do something.
Will has an idea what that something could be. It’s going to get him a long and boring lecture from Mike for being an idiot but Will can take it. Especially because it’s Mike’s fault they are in this situation in the first place.
Just to be sure that it’s the only solution he runs through his mental library of spells while mimicking Dustin and hitting the closest troll in the face with his staff like it’s a baseball bat.
And, yep, he got nothing else.
He smacks another troll with his staff and then swirls it in his hands and hits it to the ground. He knows he doesn’t have much time before a troll notices his stillness and attacks so he closes his eyes and tries to focus in the midst of the battle.
The sounds of fighting fade into the background until he can barely notice them. He can feel the magic running through his veins and he focuses all his energy to guide it through his staff.
Then, suddenly, he snaps his eyes open with a loud bam and then everything is bright for a second. That second, however, doesn’t last long. Will’s world fades into blackness before he even hits the ground.
The first thing Will saw when he woke up was Mike’s worried face that quickly shifted into annoyance when he noticed that Will’s eyes were open.
“Why in the name of all the gods did you do that?”
Will still felt weak from the spell but he pushed himself into a sitting position anyway. The movement was accompanied with an eye roll that took more energy out of him that he wants to admit.
“I’m fine, Mike. You know as well as me that there was nothing else we could have done.”
Mike huffs and gives him an exasperated look. “That doesn’t mean I like that you did it. Especially without informing any of us. What if one of the trolls had attacked you while you were casting the spell? What then?”
“Then I probably would have gotten smacked in the head with a mace,” Will deadpans and levels Mike with a look. “Besides, you’ve no right to lecture me about being careless when you quite literally tripped on a sleeping troll.”
Mike had the decency to look embarrassed. He hung his head down as a weak attempt to hide his reddening cheeks. He lifted his hands up and buried them into his hair.
“Yeah, I know. Dustin and Lucas already ridiculed me about that and I’m sorry.”
Now it was Will’s turn to huff. He leaned towards Mike and carefully tucked his hands away from his face.
“Mike,” he said as softly as he could, “What’s going on? You know you can tell me anything right?”
Mike nodded, still looking very embarrassed. “Of course I know that Will. It’s just…” he trails off and looks at Will with a lost expression. He shifts his hands in Will’s until their fingers are slotted together. It distracts Will more than he would like to admit. “I know I’ve been off lately and I want to talk about it to you but I just don’t know how to.”
Will squeezes Mike’s hands and looks him straight into his eyes. “That’s okay. You can tell me whenever you figure it out but please, please try to focus while we’re trying to sneak past armies of trolls that want to kill us.”
Mike gives him a sad smile and leans forward to rest his forehead against Will’s. “I promise. I don’t want you to get hurt like this ever again. You gave me a heart attack when I saw you on the ground.”
“I’m not even hurt, Mike. Just a little tired.”
“Well, I’m ordering you a full day of bedrest anyway. Dustin and Lucas agreed that we could camp here for a few days. Dustin has to do some repairs on his lute. I’m a little scared to ask what he did to it during the fight.”
The image of Dustin swinging his lute around like a baseball bat comes back to Will’s mind. Maybe that wasn’t as good of a fighting technique than he had thought.
“Hey! My fighting was impeccable and definitely saved both of your asses.” Dustin pokes his head inside the tent and gives them an annoyed look.
Mike quickly removes his hands from Will’s and leans away. Dustin didn’t comment anything on their position but Mike has a tendency to avoid physical touch with Will when there are other people around. Will tries to not think about it too much.
“Will, please try to pull Mike’s head out of his ass so that doesn’t happen again. I don’t think any of us can deal with anything like that again any time soon.”
“Already on it,” Will says to Dustin. They both ignore Mike’s offended protests.
Dustin chuckles and ducks his head back outside of the tent. Mike glares after him but his gaze doesn’t have the intensity it usually does.
The glare is already fully gone when he turns to look back to Will. “Can we talk about this more later? I really think you should rest.”
Will wants to argue that he’s fine but he also feels like if he lets himself fall back on the cot he will fall asleep in seconds.
He nods to Mike and gives him a small smile. “Yeah, sure.”
Or that’s what he meant to say, his body decided to yawn in the middle of his two word sentence and he just gave up trying to stay awake and flopped to lay on the cot.
He could hear Mike laugh at him as he closed his eyes but he was too tired to get fake-upset about it. Especially when he feels the soft press of lips on his forehead soon after.
“Good night my brave cleric,” Mike says, voice so soft Will can barely hear it.
“‘Night my sweet paladin,” Will mumbles back right as his consciousness fades to black.
12 notes
·
View notes