TrashPanda01
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Summary
Mike Wheeler is thirty years old, three years married, and incredibly unhappy. After an unexpected AOL Instant Messenger group chat with the Party, Mike reconnects with Will after several years and realizes that maybe his life doesn't have to be so bad.
Or: A 2000s epistolary fic in which Mike falls in love with his childhood best friend and cheats on his wife.
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Summary
Sequel to before the curtains close
Mike and Will confessed their feelings, came out to the party, and started college. And then they lived happily ever after...right?
Except happy endings are rarely as simple as they look. There are still old insecurities to untangle, new beginnings to navigate, and the occasional crisis waiting to pull everything apart.
When the curtains get drawn back, Mike and Will discover that getting together was only the beginning.
Life isn’t a story you finish just because you’ve reached the happy ending. With a little help from friends, a little interference from fate, and maybe a few costumes, Mike and Will might just figure out what comes next—together.
Series
- Part 2 of before the curtains close
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Summary
Sequel to Judith's Head.
Will Byers may not have been Mike Wheeler's first kiss, first time, or first boyfriend, but he was his first best friend. Being best friends is the greatest thing two people can possibly be. First kisses, first times, first boyfriends are fleeting. Best friends are for life.
Of course, Will is finally his boyfriend now, and it's really awesome. Mike has never been happier. Truly. He's so happy that all the pain, self-hatred, resentment, and regret seem trivial. Because they are boyfriends now. It's everything he's ever wanted, even when he didn't want to want it one bit.
To maintain the perfection of the present, Mike tries not to think about the past. Like how much he hated himself for being different, El's decision to take her own life, all the guys he’s been with, and on his worst days, of Will. It's so rare when it happens that it's not worth mentioning.
But when it does, it hurts like hell.
Or: Mike is finally ready to tell the story he could never tell, even when it comes to Will.
Series
- Part 2 of The Book of Judith
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Summary
It's 2003, and Will's life is falling apart. He's just broken up with his long term boyfriend (again), his dad keeps showing up like a bad penny to beg for money, and he's increasingly troubled by the residual memories left in him from his old connection to the hive mind. He needs a break - and Mike knows just the place.
Never mind that they've only been in the same room once since 1991, or that they spent most of the last decade out of contact. Never mind the college thing they don't talk about. Never mind the way Mike disappeared on everybody in the 90s, cutting ties with his family and moving up to Alaska. Spending the summer up there with Mike in his friend's rustic eco-dome is a GREAT idea. He put his embarrassing old Mike feelings to bed YEARS ago. Nothing could go wrong.
Or:
Will learns there are problems and feelings you can't outrun - especially when you're stuck with your best friend slash maybe-kind-of-ex-situationship pining at you from across the room.
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Summary
“So,” Dustin announced as he brought back drinks for the whole table and very pointedly tipped his head in the direction of Mike and Will, who were mid-heated discussion where they’d left them. “Is anybody going to tell me what happened there?”
Max rolled her eyes and said, “Will had a real ‘don’t meet your heroes’ moment,” at the same time as Lucas said, “Mike got his feelings hurt.”
Miscommunication kings Will and Mike have a falling out in the aftermath of their first kiss. Three years later, Jane & Dustin are getting married in the Florida Keys, and they want the whole party there. Sometimes it's easier to pretend to kiss and make up than to face your problems.