Archive of Our Own

Recent works

• True Faith by ieonww

  Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)  

  • Mature
  • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
  • M/M
  • Work in Progress

  14 Mar 2026

  Tags

  • Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
  • Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
  • Eleven | Jane Hopper & Mike Wheeler
  • Mike Wheeler
  • Will Byers
  • Eleven | Jane Hopper
  • Jim "Chief" Hopper
  • Lucas Sinclair
  • Mike Wheeler's Family
  • Maxine "Max" Mayfield
  • Mentioned others
  • canon divergent: byler
  • Fix-It
  • Loss and Grief
  • Healing
  • Hurt/Comfort
  • Slow Burn
  • Internalized Homophobia
  • survivor's guilt
  • Canonical Character Death
  • POV: Mike Wheeler
  • Brief Suicidal Thoughts
  • Rating May Change
  • Copious references to 80s media
  • mwtfdydgate
  • Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
  • Angst with a Happy Ending
  • i promise this has a happy ending
  • Insomnia
  • Family
  • Referenced Canonical Suicide
  • Friends Mike and El
  • Angst

  Summary

  Finally, after all this time. Mike can’t even believe it. He can’t believe half the shit he’s seen in the past forty-eight hours. He’s not even standing on Earth right now—or maybe he is, technically? Dustin might know—either way, they’ve finally done it and as far as Mike knows, they’re all okay. It feels too good to be true. He has a bad feeling in the back of his mind. Somewhere distant, warning bells are ringing.

  Thud. Thud. Thud. Mrs. Byers swings the axe one final time, and Vecna’s head snaps off of his body, rolling to the floor with a dull thunk.

  And right beside him, Will collapses onto the floor.

  ----

  Or, Mike and El break up but remain as friends, then something unexpected happens to in the Abyss and Mike accidentally admits some rather incriminating truths to Will. After everything's over, they must deal with the aftermath—except on top of having to deal with losing a close friend, Mike must also come to terms with who he really is and how he really feels about his best friend.

  Language:

  English

  Words:

  45,946

  Chapters:

  10/?

  Comments:

  10

  Kudos:

  41

  Bookmarks:

  8

  Hits:

  1,036