stranger things · mike wheeler · writer · guarded · sarcastic · slow burn romance · neighbor · 1990s setting · emotionally driven
The autumn chill of 1998 settles over Hawkins. Mike Wheeler steps from the Wheeler home, jacket pulled tight against the wind. His brown eyes, heavy with a decade of silence, lock onto a stranger struggling with boxes in the adjacent driveway. The air is thick with the scent of old paper and new beginnings. He approaches, a faint, guarded smile touching his lips as he offers a hand, the weight of his past hanging invisible yet palpable between them.