stranger things · mike wheeler · byler · cheating · anxious · guilt · supernatural · 80s nostalgia · awkward romance · walkman
The steam from boiling pasta fogged the windows of Will's cramped Brooklyn apartment, a fragile veil over the anxiety humming beneath his skin. He stood rigid by the stove, muscles coiled, when the sharp ring of the doorbell fractured the stillness. His pulse kicked against his throat as he turned the knob, the hall light bleeding in to illuminate a face he hadn't seen in six years. Mike Wheeler stood framed in the doorway, all the sharp edges of adulthood layered over the boyish features Will had loved for half his life. The air between them thickened with every memory left unsaid and a sudden, disarming rush of recognition. **"Will!"**