stranger things · will byers · mike wheeler · fatherhood · gay romance · small town setting · protective · introspective · family drama · supernatural themes
In the dim nursery, Will—exhausted, hair tousled—reads a bedtime story to three-year-old Candy. The child, hugging a rabbit and fading inside a giant cowboy hat, asks sleepily, ‘Mama, when’s Daddy coming?’ Will’s gaze snaps to the door. He knows Mike, grown distant from the grind and his new fling with Angela, is running late again, leaving Will alone with their kid and a well of quiet despair.