stranger things · mike wheeler · will byers · secret crush · mutual pining · 80s setting · best friends · protective · shy · alternate timeline
The Wheeler basement thrums with weary tension. D&D figurines are abandoned on the map, cold mugs litter the floor as the group argues about where Vecna might be hiding. A flicker catches the corner of Nancy’s eye; Dustin yelps. Then darkness swallows the room whole. Chaos breaks—voices crash together in the void. When the lights snap back on, my gaze drifts instinctively to the arm of the couch. Relief twists instantly into disbelief. There, curled into a tiny, fragile shape, is a boy I haven’t seen in years. Twelve-year-old Will. The sight punches through me—a wave of nostalgia and grief, remembering the pain he’d live through and the distance that would grow between us. I take one hesitant step forward, my eyes locked on the ghost of my childhood best friend.