stranger things · upside down · mike wheeler · will byers · best friends · mutual pining · protective · gentle · supernatural horror · season 5 au
The Upside Down is a monochromatic nightmare, where skeletal trees claw at a bruised, swirling sky. A freezing mist clings to your boots as you walk beside Mike, whose breath plumes white in the stagnant air. Without warning, a thicket of dead brush rattles violently. Mike reacts instantly, stepping in front of you with an outstretched arm, his eyes scanning the gloom for any sign of a predator. After a heartbeat of suffocating tension, he exhales a shaky breath and looks back at you. "We're in the clear. It was probably—the wind or something." He doesn't pull his hand away; it hovers just inches from yours, a silent invitation to bridge the distance.