#boxerbyers

[kakicherry]

Will and his boyfriend are showing a new-to-the-city Mike around. Tonight they're taking him to a club. Mike, who's always been too chicken to try using the eyeliner Nancy got him, somehow gets Will to put it on for him after some teasing from Mike's boyfriend.

[kakicherry]

Boxer Byers x Run (away from your feelings) Wheeler

My little headcanon. If you'll allow me to ramble a bit, this is the baby stage lore I've got :

After graduating, Mike stays home, he's not sure why, he just can't seem to figure out what he wants to do. He's accepted El's death, but he's still ridden with guilt. Guilt that he couldn't save her, that he couldn't treat her the way she deserved, that he couldn't understand her or her choice. He was the heart, and he had to make his friends believe in a world where she was okay, because he couldn't bear to know they felt the guilt he did.

Will on the other hand, left with Hopper and Joyce to New York, where he got into university. He studies fine art and he finally feels like he's surrounded by people who're more like him, he doesn't feel quite as much pressure to not be the sensitive guy he is.

After a couple weeks, Jonathan urges to start dating because Will is stuck creatively. He's reluctant at first, he still loves Mike and he's afraid to be rejected again, to top it all off, he's a romantic. He wants something out of the movies, he wants to be seen and adored but can he be truly loved if there are parts of him he can never share ? But, after some reflection, he realizes the picture perfect love story is not something he'll ever get.

He meets a few weirdos, but there's this one nice guy he's been on a few dates with. It doesn't really pan out romantically but they remain friends and grow quite close over the next few months.

Before the new school year begins, he hears about Mike being accepted into his university. Karen had called Joyce and asked her if she knew any safe places to rent him an apartment that wasn't too far from the university.

Will's quite surprised and he's not sure how to feel about having to see him at school, they'd be in different majors anyway so they'd probably not run into each other often, if at all. the campus is quite big after all. The thought stings. He'd lost Mike to El, he'd lost him to their friendship, and worst of all, he'd lost him to time. Even if he didn't love him the same way, Mike was Will's muse. His heart. He thought if he could get him back, everything would start feeling better and his art would improve in the process. He talks it through with Joyce and Hop, they call Karen who discusses it with Mike and by the end of the month, it's settled : they're going to be roommates.

Maybe it was because they'd not seen each other in a while, or because they never truly addressed Will's confession, but things were a bit awkward. Will lies. He's not sure why exactly, he tells Mike he has a boyfriend. The guy he went on a few dates with. Mike seems surprised, and things start feeling less awkward. Something gnaws at Will, he feels so stupid for lying and hoping Mike would be disappointed.

While they live together, they learn a few new things about each other, like how Mike has written a couple of drafts but nothing seems to stick and they all end up crumpled up and thrown away or stacked in a pile that he swears he'll go through and pick out salvageable ideas from only for the pile to grow bigger and taller by the day.

Something more surprising though, might've been the punching bag Mike saw in Will's room. The way he explains it, it was one thing to not be scared anymore, but it was another to be defenseless, weak.

The punching bag was Billy's. Crazy, right? Max had visited a couple times, they'd gotten really close; after all, they'd both lost a sister and they'd both been inside Vecna's mind.

One of those times she visited, they talked about it.

"-No matter how hard I try to forget, to quiet my mind, to wash it away, " he pulls down his sleeve, but not before Max notices the scratches on his arms. "...nothing works. He's dead but I'm still stuck in his mind, or him in mine. He's everywhere. I'm so.."

"-Angry ?" Max cuts him off. She'd been angry too. Angry she'd lost so much to that asshole, and now angry that her best friend was still hurting because of him. As they talk more, she explains "It's like his rage has passed down to me or something. It's so stupid. We're not even related. But it's like a virus... contagious."

And because she didn't want to infect anyone else the way Billy's rage had consumed him and hurt anyone who got close to him, she had a looked through a few things of his that his dad had left behind. She decided, if the anger was here to stay, she wouldn't take it out on her friends or her family, or on herself the way Will seems to have been doing, but onto Billy. Or what was left of him, at least. That rage had never been hers to begin with.

And that's how Will started boxing. Not that he went into details about it to Mike. Which he could sense. They still got along well, but it was... different. Strained.

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extra bits :

• Wills boxes more often after Mike moves in because his feelings resurface

• Mike's guilt is sickening, after going to a party, he gets drunk, and the few hours the world and his feelings were blurry felt like a huge relief, so he starts drinking.. he drinks a bit too much sometimes

• Jonathan sees Mike's struggle and equates his drinking to his own weed consumption when he was younger, so he helps him navigate it before it turns into too big of a problem.

• Perhaps one of the way Jon tries to help is by enlisting Mike's help with a short movie, focusing his energy and pain into something creative

• I originally wanted to make Mike run track, because he runs away from his feelings but his motivation would have been "if I were faster, I could've saved El, I could've protected Will, my friends, my family, if I can run fast enough, no one can ever catch me, and I'll be safe, I'll keep everyone safe" but it might be too on the nose and I just can't imagine him running lmao

• Will definitely has PTSD in this AU

• The reasons Mike can't love Will is because his internalised homophobia, and because he associates his love for will with death ( Will's fake body, associated to him not having been able to protect him and "probably killed by some other fairy" / using Jane to find and save Will which eventually leads to her death )

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That's it for my rambling >:D if you made it this far, how'd you like it in my brain ? It's pretty cool sometimes, albeit a bit messy ! I appreciate you reading this though, I hereby release you from my cranial cavity, enjoy your newfound freedom