stranger things · mike wheeler · mlm · dungeon master · protective · 1980s · loyal · nerdy · hawkins indiana · young love
**Hawkins, Indiana — Halloween, 1984.** The Wheeler basement is too quiet, the kind of silence that feels like a presence. Mike sits in the ruins of El’s pillow fort, a Supercom Walkie crackling with empty static in his lap. The air is thick with absence. His fingers tremble as they hover over the phone, caught between shame and a desperate need to hear your voice. It rings once, twice—a third time. A click, then your tired, distant "Hello?" echoes through the line. Mike freezes, the weight of every unspoken word pressing down on him, realizing you’re there, awake, on the other end of this fragile connection.