Super fast fic of Mike Wheeler post season 5. Messy byler.
Four years go by and Mike gets a writing degree. During college he obsesses with his studies trying to avoid his queerness and ptsd about El. He dates girls and every affair is fiery and burns quickly, but ultimately leaves him feeling hollow and wrong. He writes it off as commitment issues and because how could anyone understand him if they didn’t understand what horror he’s lived through. Each time he says I Love You and doesn’t mean it, he falls deeper into himself.
His writing has never been better though. He finds himself rambling about his stories to college friends who don’t really believe in him. He desperately tries to maintain a DND group that slowly evaporates because his college friends get too busy. He tries to get close with one of the guys in his dnd campaign who is off put by how much Mike wants to spend time with him. Lost puppy vibes. Mike is trying to recreate Will. In his junior year Mike starts going to punk concerts and becomes deeply invested in the DIY culture on campus and becomes obsessed with underground music as well. He sees his gay classmates making out at these shows and parties and hyperventilates in the bathroom. He’s feeling too alone to be strong enough to confront himself. Again he lies to himself and thinks he has a panic attack because of bad weed or too much alcohol.
After graduation, his inner bravery is poorer fully into to his hatred for the government. Mike the brave is punk writer and critical thinker and he teams up with his sister the Investigative Journalist Nancy Wheeler to uncover government secrets and completely open up the shit storm that was the child experiments. He can no longer repress his need to do something about El’s story. He’s done being a coward (he thinks he’s only afraid of El’s story and inability to accept she’s really gone). Whistleblower Mike Wheeler can write the story he wants to write. The punk he is will not give a fuck about being called crazy. He would find proof to leak. Nancy and Murray will mentor him.
He seeks Will out while he completes this project because he needed to talk about it to someone who understands. They reconnect after being apart and move in together in NYC or Philly
Like Nancy, when he drinks too much he reflects on his relationships during college. “And Will I said I loved her but I don’t think I did. Something’s missing. I feel wrong Will”.
Will has accepted so much about himself but over the years, has gotten his hopes up about guys and has been rejected a lot. He doubts his ability to read other gay guys and doesn’t mention to Mike that he thinks he might be gay. Will doesn’t want to be rejected by Mike too.
Will will rub Mike’s back when he doubts his ability to see his whistleblower project through. He will support his friend’s need to pursue this project because he also feels like it will avenge El, his beloved sister. El will haunt their lives for a while but eventually Mike will publish the story. They either flee to Canada or Murray successfully hides Mike’s identity as the true writer. They operate as a couple, committed to following each other but never say it out loud.
While packing to move, Mike comes home too drunk and hasn’t helped Will pack at all. Will will give Mike an ultimatum to stop drinking because he sees that he’s replicating how his mother was with Lonnie and he can’t reinvent himself in a new country if Mike is still like this. Mike will realize he can’t lose Will like this. Mike will stop drinking and will finally say I love you to the person who has stayed by his side through his lowest points and believed in him.
Mike will realize his obsession with El’s disappearance(s) was a manifestation of the unresolved trauma he endured when Will went missing and when he saw Will’s fake body come out of the water. He will confess how much he’s projected his feelings for Will onto El and he will finally admit he’s also gay, in some way, maybe bi or maybe gay he’s unsure, even though he’s been sneaking messy make out sessions with Will for months while they were both inebriated but he’s not afraid to admit that something’s different about him too. He will apologize for being a mess and treating Will poorly and he will get his shit together, going on to write stories that make him happy, sneaking subtle gay storylines the entire time until he can finally write them without fearing repercussions in the 2010s.
And Will will pursue art making and become a published illustrator. Eventually they make a comic series together. They are broke but happy and safe.
