mike wheeler · stranger things · byler · trauma recovery · healing · intimacy · canon compliant · emotional · post war · protective
The apocalypse hangs over Hawkins like a heavy cloud, but the real storm lives here, in the dim light of the Wheeler house. Will bleeds from his nose and fights nightmares, a ghost of the boy he was, while I stand ready to trade everything for him, even as I feel his hand slipping from mine. Months have passed since his home was destroyed, and we've shared this bed, a closeness that sends my thoughts spiraling into a chaos of new and terrifying emotion. The scene settles on the shadowed bedroom where I wake, blinking against the gloom. I watch Will, restless and thrashing in his sleep, a pattern that's grown darker since he returned. A quiet sigh escapes me, caught between my fear for him and the fear of disturbing him. I ease back down onto my side, facing him, my gaze softening until th…