1 - 20 of 28 Bookmarks by Dustinsthinkingcap
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“Did I do something wrong?” Mike questions, mouth twisted in a frown, eyes less wide than they were a few moments ago, sleepiness gone. His arms stay at his sides, although his fingers fiddle with his sleeves. “What did I do wrong?”
Will frowns back. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Mike doesn’t look like he believes him. Will doesn’t blame him. “Then why do you keep leaving?”
The world ends, and then some. Mike and Will find each other again, amidst the debris and distance.
Series
- Part 1 of fix-its
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 21,203
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 757
- Kudos:
- 16,914
- Bookmarks:
- 3,938
- Hits:
- 251,900
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
17 Sep 2025
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Will Byers hasn’t seen all of his friends in the same room since 1994, and he hasn’t spoken to Mike Wheeler since 1995—the year he told him how he felt and watched their friendship fall apart. But when Max and Lucas buy their first house, they throw a Y2K New Year’s Eve party, dragging everyone back together for the first time in years.
Mike and Will are older now, different now, but when they see each other again—all sharp edges, awkward tension, and a lifetime of unresolved feelings—it’s like nothing ever changed. Except everything has.
Series
- Part 1 of crowded house
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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Will loved his job as a Florist, and usually everything was amazing; so when a simple mistake lands someone new in his life with curly black hair and magnetic brown eyes, why is it that he can’t focus anymore? He was used to flowers blooming, but his heart? That was one he never anticipated on happening, and it caught him by a landslide.
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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Mike's parents have an agenda for him, one he wants to avoid following. He doesn't want to go to college. He doesn't want to get a girlfriend or get married. Mike wants to sit in his room all day and play his guitar. That is until his mom forces him to bring a date to a family celebration, and he thinks of a brilliant plan to piss his parents off. He forms an alliance with the new kid, Will Byers, in which he agrees to go with Mike to his family dinner, and they pretend they're dating.
They planned the fake dating part at the dinner party, but what happens when they keep the facade up to help Will?
What happens when Mike and Will start becoming good friends? Or even scarier...What happens when Mike starts catching feelings?
Or
Mike and Will start a fake relationship to piss off Mike's parents but they end up becoming more---Slow burn.
Modern-high school AU inspired by clowncultcentral
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 226,988
- Chapters:
- 35/35
- Comments:
- 1,796
- Kudos:
- 3,895
- Bookmarks:
- 859
- Hits:
- 130,218
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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I Never Find Out 'Til I'm Head Over Heels by orphan_account
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
07 May 2017
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Wherein Mike believes he’s being obvious, Will doesn’t know what he believes, and the pair of them could use a lesson or two in effective communication. Somehow all of this has both nothing and everything to do with five years' worth of school dances.
(This piece was written for the Stranger Things Big Bang)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 12,548
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 204
- Kudos:
- 9,356
- Bookmarks:
- 1,529
- Hits:
- 89,791
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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It's the late '80s, and Will is coping with the loneliness of having left the Party behind. Somehow, through it all, he still has feelings for his childhood best friend, Mike, though he's growing to regret that fact more with each passing day.
It's the early '90s, and Mike is coming to understand that there are some people worth losing your false sense of self for. But now that Mike and Will have parted ways, this realization may have come too late.
Series
- Part 1 of Shrike
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“I’m just saying if you make it creative enough maybe he’ll–”
“Holly you have never been in a relationship, I don’t think I should be taking advice from–”
“I’ve been in a relationship before!”
“Thomas does not count and you know it. Don’t–”
“Mike?”
Both Mike and Holly freeze, slowly turning in unison to look at the worker behind the counter. Mike doesn’t even need to look at Holly to know she recognized the voice as quickly as he did.
Or
Mike takes Holly to the pumpkin patch while he's home visiting from college.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,565
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 15
- Kudos:
- 334
- Bookmarks:
- 45
- Hits:
- 2,316
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“Because I want to see all of your face.” Mike then says, in one breath, as though it is the simplest explanation in the world. Will’s stomach twists, for once not with unmovable anxiety, but with an emotion that is really quite hard to describe, one that feels too dangerous, considering the menagerie of everything Will wants right now.
“You can’t just say things like that.” Will laughs, a stilled one that sounds unnatural even in his own ears.
OR: In the first summer out of the dark, Mike and Will spend a warm afternoon together.
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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1989. Senior year.
It took nearly three years of growing apart, but Will Byers has finally gotten used to life without Mike Wheeler. He has El, he has Max, he has his art, and, as of two days ago, he has a full ride to art school in Chicago, so things are good. Right? So when Mike climbs through his window one night and stumbles back into his life, Will’s not prepared for the resurgence of old feelings—and even less prepared for the possibility that they might not be as hopeless as he always thought. With the expiration date of graduation looming, Will has to figure out not only his future, but what exactly he and Mike are to each other.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 33,017
- Chapters:
- 7/7
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 214
- Kudos:
- 2,523
- Bookmarks:
- 858
- Hits:
- 69,295
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“What did you mean, ‘we’re not friends anymore’?” Will demands.
“Oh god,” Mike says faintly, because he can’t think of a single other thing to say.
“It’s Will, actually,” Will says. “Or maybe you forgot that in the five years since you last bothered to speak to me before you sent me this.”
He unfolds his arms to brandish a crumpled envelope in Mike’s face, and he knows without even looking at his own handwriting on the front exactly what it is.
(or, the summer after all his friends graduate from college, mike writes will a letter to say goodbye. predictably, nothing about this goes as planned.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 23,505
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 149
- Kudos:
- 1,392
- Bookmarks:
- 366
- Hits:
- 14,076
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“You kept my painting,” Will says. Sure enough, there’s the heart on Mike’s shield, just as red as the day Will painted it. It was Will’s heart that he painted, maybe. It was also Will’s heart that he pulled out and molded into the lie he thought Mike needed to hear, halfway between Salt Lake City and a secret government bunker in Nevada.
Will’s heart is in his throat now, and in Mike’s hands, and on Mike’s wall, framed and carefully displayed.
They stand there in silence for a minute, Will on one side of the room and Mike on the other and too many years of radio silence in between. The quiet is so heavy it’s like a weight on Will’s chest, crushing him, applying pressure—but to a wound or to a bruise, he doesn’t know.
“Will,” Mike says. “Why are you here?”
(or, will has some realizations and a lot of hard conversations, and not every loss is forever.)
Series
- Part 3 of boys in bars
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 13,771
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 243
- Kudos:
- 1,699
- Bookmarks:
- 229
- Hits:
- 13,925
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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It's been nearly ten years since they saw each other. Ten years since they lived in the same state, much less occupied the same room. Ten years since they were friends; eight and a half since Will stopped referring to Mike as such, much less his best one.
Ten years, and here Mike is, and here Will is, and here’s the guy in the chinos who just bought Will’s first friend, first love, first heartbreak a drink. Here is what the poets call cosmic fucking irony, Will thinks: the setup for the world’s unfunniest a guy walks into a bar joke, and Will’s the punchline. Will’s been punched in the gut.
(or, after ten years of no contact, will encounters mike wheeler in a new york city bar, and he doesn't know what to do about it.)
Series
- Part 1 of boys in bars
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 12,234
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 165
- Kudos:
- 1,520
- Bookmarks:
- 248
- Hits:
- 24,006
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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......
a miwi oneshot to warm the soulBookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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hawkins to lenora is a long distance, but mike doesn’t care. not when will is on the other end of the line, not when every second of his voice feels like a lifeline. so when the party tries to take the receiver — mike holds on tighter. he can’t let go. not yet.
OR: mike, lucas, dustin, and max finally get through to will while he's living in california. mike doesn't let the phone go. chaos ensues.
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“I’m glad they moved me closer to the art block,” Mike mentions after a second, and Will blinks at him. “It’ll be easier to bother you, now.”
Will clicks his teeth. “Incredibly professional,” he notes, and Mike’s smile widens. Sometimes, Will’s heart feels moments from exploding, like a firework someone had poured gasoline onto and threw in a fire.
“I’m the pinnacle of professional,” Mike decides, oblivious to Will’s cardiovascular issues.
Between being a teacher in a school full of chaos, being in love with his best friend and coworker of several years, and Lucas' worst idea yet, Will tries his best to make it through another school year.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 16,923
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 164
- Kudos:
- 3,323
- Bookmarks:
- 745
- Hits:
- 29,439
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“You’re the most important thing in my life. You always have been,” Mike’s voice shook. His eyes were closed, almost like he couldn’t look at Will right then. “And I can’t- I don’t ever want you to feel like you’re not. Because you are. You’re everything to me, Will. You have been since that first day of kindergarten.” Mike paused and tilted his head down.
“A-and when I lost you- when I thought I really lost you, I didn’t know I just…” Mike paused again. Will moved slightly, setting the letter on the table. “I thought my life was over. My life was over.”
“You’re the most important thing in the world.”
OR
Mike and Will are going through a hard time but they'll make it through.
Loosely based on the teapot letter from The Office
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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“Did you think I’d have a problem with that?” Mike had retorted, even though he knew.
“That’s not what I said– I just know you two haven’t really talked. I know he transferred. I don’t know if those two are related, because both of you are freaks and won’t talk about it with anyone. But I’m not an idiot, Mike,” Dustin had responded, making Mike promise that he’d be on his best behavior, to which Mike swore there was nothing to worry about, before hanging up and feeling a pit in his stomach he didn’t know what to do with.
It's 1994, and Mike has a wedding to attend.
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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Will Byers just graduated from UCLA and decided to travel after college in hopes the change in scenery will help reignite his passion for art (and, not to mention, help him find a permanent job). Mike Wheeler leaves Hawkins after his parent’s nasty divorce during his senior year of high school. He winds up working as a farm hand for a few years before moving again to California and becoming a bike tour guide in wine country. They meet on a sunny morning in June.
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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"The phone rang. And rang. And...
Busy tone. Again."
Mike calls Will after a bad day, hoping to get through to his best friend after he's moved away. Instead, he's confronted with a busy tone. He talks anyway.
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025
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Summary
Mike and Will are two strangers who get stuck in an elevator together.
Series
- Part 2 of AU Stranger Things
Bookmarked by Dustinsthinkingcap
16 Sep 2025