refrigeratorlights
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Summary
Will Byers has spent his entire life learning how to make himself smaller.
How to ration breath. How to ration truth.
How to decide he's fine before anyone can argue with him.Loving him has always required a certain kind of attentiveness— noticing the pauses, the quiet corrections, the way he carries more than he lets anyone see. Mike Wheeler does this instinctively, long before he understands why. Long before he understands what it will cost him.
As hospital stays grow longer and timelines grow less generous, Mike is forced to confront a version of love that offers no guarantees: one that can't be fixed, cured, or saved by staying up late or loving harder. Only chosen, again and again.
This is a story about borrowed time, the weight of staying, and about what it means to love someone even when you already know the ending.
Or:
Will is dying.
Mike loves him anyway. -
something simple (give you my heart) by refrigeratorlights
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
22 Dec 2025
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Mike writes a song before he understands why he needs it.
At first, it's just something to fill the margins of his notebook— unfinished lines, crossed-out words, thoughts that feel easier to keep small. No matter how hard he tries to tell himself it's nothing, every lyric seems to lead back to Will.
The song changes as Mike does. It stops being something to fix or perfect and becomes something he's tired of hiding. When he finally lets Will hear it, it isn't about the music at all— it's about choosing to be seen.
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A Mike-centric oneshot about music, unfinished words, and learning when to stop being so silent. Loosely inspired by "I Want to Write You a Song" by One Direction. -
a fault you could follow (if you weren't so afraid of falling) by refrigeratorlights
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
15 Dec 2025
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And for the first time in a long time, Mike isn’t scared.
He doesn’t feel ashamed of the way his heart beats too fast, or the way it’s always known where it belongs. He doesn’t feel like the little boy he once was—hands red and aching, glitter still clinging stubbornly to his fingers, terrified that wanting something too much meant losing it.
Mike Wheeler has always believed that loving Will Byers is something to endure.
Something quiet and private. Something you survive rather than choose. Something you bury beneath loyalty, fear, and the unspoken understanding that wanting too much is dangerous—especially when the world already knows exactly where to hurt you.But some truths don’t stay buried.
As a year of silence gives way to proximity, to touch, and to the quiet devastation of being seen, Mike is forced to confront what he’s been running from all along: not the fear of losing Will, but the fear of wanting him openly. Of choosing him without bracing for impact.
Because earthquakes don’t always destroy things.
Sometimes, they reveal what was always there—waiting to be held without shaking.
Recent bookmarks
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For their senior year spring break, the Party sets sail on a 7-day cruise to celebrate the next chapter of their lives. Not much has changed since their last reunion, as long as you don't count Mike and Will breaking up two years ago, which fractured the group permanently and made it so neither of them could stand to be within ten feet of each other.
It'll be a trip they never forget - that much Will is sure of.
- Language:
- English
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- 142,596
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- 9/?
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Bookmarked by refrigeratorlights
09 May 2026
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Mike and Will get summer jobs as lifeguards at the Hawkins Community Pool during college break. Will just wants to forget about his first failed relationship. Mike wants to make it an unforgettable summer.
CPR training gets complicated when you're hot for your "straight" best friend and he keeps wanting to practice his mouth-to-mouth technique.
"Should we… practice again?" Mike said finally. "Now?"
Series
- Part 1 of Super Soaker Series
- Language:
- English
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- 140,998
- Chapters:
- 27/27
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- 13,829
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Bookmarked by refrigeratorlights
29 Apr 2026
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talk to me dirty; talk to me sweet by thesweetestdream
Fandoms: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
28 Jun 2026
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Will and Mike accidentally overhear a couple talking dirty over the walkie, and start repeating some of the filthy phrases to each other for shits and giggles. What starts as a joke, soon turns into something they can't stop doing – and can’t tell anyone about.
Or:
Mike and Will start talking dirty to each other for fun. What they don't consider is that it would accidentally turn them on.
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Mike pushes into his hands, but Will keeps him still.
"Ask again," he says. Because he's greedy, and he wants Mike to want him.
He stares at Will's mouth. "Please."
"Again."
El is gone.
Will tries to figure out how to move on in New York, and Mike follows him. Their apartment is haunted not by ghosts, but by the two of them.
Or: Catastrophically traumatized boys cling to each other and accidentally figure out how to be close—too close—while moving through their grief.
Series
- Part 1 of Supervoid (& Will’s Letter to El)
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“Dustin’s your Tammy?” And it shouldn’t bother him. Not really. But what the fuck? What does Dustin have that Mike doesn’t?
“Dustin is, without a doubt, not my Tammy.” Will hums, serene as can be. Which is pretty annoying, considering Mike’s sort of wanted to fight Dustin since the words came out of his mouth.
“Oh. You’re sure?”
“Pretty positive, yeah.” Will laughs.