This is me whenever I get obsessed with something: a book, a movie, a TV show, a song, a character, an anime, a comic, a manga, a video game… literally anything. I sound insane and I just can’t stop talking about it.
Well, right now I’m like this with some fanfics I’ve been reading. Yes, I’m reading fanfiction. It had been over ten years since I last read one, and the only ones I had read before were on Wattpad. The ones I read now are on AO3 and, holy shit, there are insanely talented people there.
How to disapeear completely by Peachstatic
The first one I want to recommend is How to Disappear Completely by Peachstatic, my favorite Byler author. Yes, the Will and Mike ship. This fic is currently on chapter three, and the author estimates it’ll be around twelve chapters long. Fuck, it’s such a good story. It deals with really raw and painful themes: settling in life, anxiety, insecurities, relationships worn down by lack of desire and love, sexual identity, emotional and physical cheating, depression, adult-life crises, lost love, trauma, etc. It’s set in 2002, with Will and Mike already grown adults in their thirties. After years of being distant from each other, they reconnect through a group chat with their old friends.
*Max is playing The Sims, damn, I love this!*
One of the things I love most about this fic is the early-2000s nostalgia it captures. The author is so meticulous and talented, and writes with so much dedication and love, that she takes the time to naturally weave trends and details from that era into the story. I genuinely love it.
In this fic, Mike is married to a woman named Maggie, so there’s eventually emotional cheating and later physical cheating with Will. And what I love is that there are no villains or perfect victims here: every character feels humanized, which makes everything so much more raw and painful. I’ve read other fanfics —which I usually never finish— where, whenever there’s cheating, it’s usually Will cheating and his partner is some awful guy. So the infidelity becomes easier to digest and loses emotional weight; everything feels too predictable. That’s not the case here. Still, as the author herself makes clear, the story isn’t trying to justify infidelity.
Another thing I love is that, even though there’s a huge amount of sexual tension and chemistry between Mike and Will, they never stop being best friends or connecting through that friendship first. They’re still nerds and frikis; they still talk about and share the things they love. I’ve read other stories where, once they start exploring intimacy together, their entire relationship gets reduced to just that. And I genuinely believe that, before anything else, they have an incredibly deep friendship.
For example, in My Will Is Good and its sequel Come As You Are —also by this wonderful author, who has this gift where in every one of her fanfics you can truly see and hear Mike and Will while keeping their essence and personalities intact, set in 1992— they share an apartment while attending college. They start out as friends with benefits and eventually become an established couple. But even then, they never stop sharing the things they love and enjoy; the very same things that made them friends in the first place. And on top of that, they’re unbelievably sweet with each other. Like, painfully sweet. I love that. *This fanfic touches on Will's trauma, but it isn't the central theme of the story—it's just one part of it.
I also highly recommend those fanfics, which are part of the Nirvana series. The author is going to release the third part soon. Honestly, it’s some of the best writing I’ve ever read. And because of those stories, I’ve started listening to way more Nirvana too.
Going back to How to Disappear Completely: it’s pure gold. It’s written in an epistolary format, so you experience Mike’s story through emails, internet searches, chats with Will and his friends, entries from his online diary, medical instructions, etc. The way this author expresses herself is so human, deep, and realistic. Everything feels real. Very real. It’s almost like you’re inside a real person’s computer.
Another thing I absolutely love in this fic is that Will is a successful illustrator who works doing what he loves. He already has two published comics and even won an award!
And Mike studied literature and is now a teacher, even though it’s not what he truly wanted —he wanted to be a writer. But honestly, the author’s dedication is so obvious even in the way they write. Mike writes with perfect spelling and punctuation, while Will’s writing feels softer, sweeter, more artistic. Ah, I love it so much.
And lastly, I love how realistic the story feels. A lot of us like imagining Mike and Will ending up together right after graduation in the summer of ’89, and yes, that’s beautiful. But it’s also realistic to remember that they were teenagers in the 1980s, living in a small American town during a time when homophobia was normalized and, in many places, being gay was still considered a disease or even a crime. On top of that, the AIDS crisis was happening. And Mike came from a conservative family, with a Republican father. As sad as it is, it makes sense that he would end up marrying a woman and repressing himself for years until emotionally falling apart. I genuinely recommend it so much. It’s heartbreaking, but wonderful.
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illustrator: @miwicoded (X - Twitter)
Another fanfic I want to recommend is Matador by Alice_Reese48. Honestly, this should’ve been season 5 of Stranger Things. It’s currently on chapter 19 out of an estimated 25 and is set in 1987, between seasons 4 and 5. It’s incredibly well-written, especially the early chapters. It has such a gripping supernatural plot that manages to include every character, even though the main focus is obviously still Mike and Will. And I love it because I feel like it captures the Will from the show perfectly: a boy shaped by trauma and pain who still remains sweet and brave. But it’s not just about Will and Mike, even though they are at the center of it. It’s a sad and moving story that deals with Will’s trauma in a raw way and explores all the consequences of going through what he went through.
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Talk to me dirty; talk to me sweet by Thesweetestdream
And finally, probably the most popular Byler fic right now: Talk to Me Dirty; Talk to Me Sweet by Thesweetestdream. It’s on chapter 13 out of an estimated 17. Here, Mike and Will are 18 years old during the summer of 1989, before starting college. Yes, it’s an explicit fanfic with plot, but I think the main reason it became so popular is because it’s incredibly well-written. The emotions are portrayed so intensely that you genuinely feel immersed in what the characters are experiencing. You feel the awkwardness of first times, the anxiety, the self-discovery. Plus, it's a fanfic that makes heavy use of subtext and symbolism. I love finding that in everything I read or watch.
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All of these fanfics are written from Mike's point of view, except for Matador, which alternates between Will's and Mike's perspectives.
Another thing worth mentioning about these fanfics is that consent is incredibly important. Guys, consent is sexy, and I love that they place such a high priority on it.
Lately I’ve read several more, but I ended up dropping many of them for different reasons. Mostly because some writers turn Will into the stereotypical gay character to the point where it feels degrading. And that bothers me, because Will is such a genuinely great character, with really cool interests and personality traits, that reducing him to some misogynistic fetish feels awful. I also dislike when, in some stories, once Mike and Will begin exploring each other, the intimacy becomes overly performative and unrealistic for two inexperienced boys who obviously wouldn’t fully know what they’re doing. Everything starts feeling hollow and superficial. Or when writers turn Mike into someone jealous and toxic. For example, Mike in My Will Is Good is jealous too, but in a sweet and funny way. Or when they pair Will with characters he would never realistically be involved with —the most popular example being Chance, a character who bullied his friends. Will would never be with someone like that.
Anyway. I’m a fanfiction reader now after spending years dismissing fanfics entirely. And honestly, they’re really not bad at all. I found genuinely talented people. The Byler fandom as a whole is incredibly talented, actually. You can find amazing illustrations, animations, and stories.
By the way, I didn't know people shipped Frodo and Sam from The Lord of the Rings. It's been ages since I've seen the movies, so I'll watch them again soon.
