"“Mr. Byers! I was hoping to catch you. This is Dr. Owens, from Hawkins National Laboratory.”
Will pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, already feeling a headache beginning to form in his temples. "I’m kind of in the middle of a lecture here, can this wait?”
“I’m afraid it can’t. We need your assistance urgently.”
“And why do you need me?” Will was unable to suppress the bitterness in his tone, “You’ve got plenty of experts and doctors on your staff. I’m just a grad student, and I’m halfway across the country. What could I possibly do that no one else could?”
Dr. Owens cleared his throat on the other end of the line, “You’re the only one who’s been there and made it out alive. Honestly, we could use your expertise. We’ve caught a specimen. A live one. And you’re definitely going to want to see this.”
Or, it's 1998 and the Upside Down is still alive and kicking, and something new just came out."
Thoughts: MERMAID MIKE HOLY SHIT. SOOOOOO good. I don't usually read long fics like this but it was soooo good i just had to finish it.
"“Mike?” She tries again, her throat bubbling. She hates this. She hates not knowing how to fix things.
More heavy breathing blows through the receiver.
A shaky sob.
And a response.
“I’m gay.”
A scared weep rattles into her ear and Nancy’s chest squeezes.
Fuck.
or
In the middle of the night, Mike comes out to Nancy over the phone."
Thoughts: HOLY SHIT this one actually got me so emotional jesusssss i missed them having sibling dynamics so much this fic basically revived me omfg
"The Mike Wheeler-Certified Guide to Cheating on Your Nonexistent Wife"
https://archiveofourown.org/works/72579391
Will’s face, barely visible in the dark of night— the theater had closed just a few minutes ago, removing the neon glare of the entrance signs and leaving only the parking lot lights to illuminate Will’s beauty. It was enough for Mike, however. Seeing just the slope of his nose and the curve of his lashes broke his heart into a million and one pieces, over and over again. As Will prepared to respond, Mike’s gaze flickered down to his pink, dampened lips, stained from the cherry Icee he'd had earlier. He was incomprehensibly, ineffably, beautiful.
Mike Wheeler wants to know why Holly's cute art teacher is acting so strange around him.
Will Byers is trying his hardest not to be a homewrecker.
Thoughts: TEACHER AU IM SO FUCKING SAT. miscommunication/misinterpretation but in a non-frustrating way and it's actually super cute and adorable omfg
An accident leaves Mike without four years of memories. He wakes up convinced that it's 1989, that Bush is the new President, and that his time at college in Boston has only just begun.
But it's 1994. There's a new President. He lives in New York.
And somehow, he shares an apartment with Will Byers.
Or: An Amnesia AU.
Thoughts: BROKE MY HEART OML. It's so sad to watch mike not understanding everything but it hurts in a good way i swear. The way it's written is so beautiful. It doesn't tell you things directly but lets you piece together stuff as you read, which is SO GOOD.
“Meow,” and there’s no way she heard that right, eyes snapping away from where she’d been distractedly watching the TV screen and over to her brother’s friend. She checks again, and yeah, Will is holding a stuffed bear, not a cat. The beloved Tiggy stays firmly attached to his bag, so they aren’t playing with tigers, either.
“So they go back down the mountain, and now all the village people are asking them about the crystal, and Rory is sad thinking they didn’t get it that whole time, but then–”
“Meow. Meow,” Will declares, removing the teddy from the dinosaur’s back and making it do some sort of interpretive dance.
~
Or, Mike makes a new friend. Nancy learns how to speak cat.
Thoughts: STUPID ADORABLE aidgauhdakh. Miwi burger with a side of wheeler sibling fries and a nonverbal will shake. Absolutely beautiful. must read.
"A certain scene from the movie popped up, causing Will’s mouth to drop open and for his eyes to widen as he soaked in what was on the TV.
Of all the scenes in the movie, Mike had returned The Outsiders paused during the few, brief seconds when Sodapop was getting out of the shower in the background of the shot. Sodapop haphazardly covered himself with a towel, and then wrapped the towel just, like, stupidly low around his hips, his chest still wet and bare from the shower.
Or:
3 times that Mike Wheeler doesn’t rewind his rental movie before returning it to Family Video + 1 time that he does."
Thoughts: one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITES. The little detail in the end of the quote thingy from the movie was sooooo cute omfgggg. Words cannot explain how much i love this fic. Everyone should read it right now if you havent already.