The sweetie

it's always grumpy mike and sunshine will and — don't get me wrong — i LOVE that as much as any other guy, but also consider:

- will who is nowhere remotely near being a morning person, stumbling out of his room every day with a half-flattened half-spiked bedhead, and everybody jumping out of his way because they don't want to die by getting on his nerves before he's had at least 2 cups of coffee

- mike not only having will's art all over his walls, but also newspaper clippings of articles about awards dustin has won, notes he and lucas have passed each other in classes through the years, el's latest cross-stitch or embroidery experiments, a whiteboard that max loves to doodle and write snarky comments all over when she comes by, the ink nearly unerasable because of how long mike's left it up untouched, pictures of nancy and holly and karen. decorating his room with little touches of everyone he loves to remind himself of them everyday

- will growing up, finding his voice and his confidence and promptly joining mike on the "HE ASKED FOR NO PICKLES" kind of friend train. him becoming the go-to person to talk to when someone has wronged one of the party members because, while he isn't violent by nature, his dark and off-putting ass will be coming up with revenge plans like "let's convince them they have people living in their walls"

- mike having a scheduled night every week where he calls holly and talks to her for hours. it's a well-known fact that wheeler can't hang out or, god forbid, be booked in for a shift on thursday night after 6pm because he would and has turned everything down to chat to his little sister about her newest d&d campaign idea or what they had for lunch at the cafeteria that week without even thinking twice about it

- will being the kind of jealous/possessive where, instead of just glaring and brooding silently like mike does when someone hits on will, he'll go out of his way to flaunt their relationship in front of that person. he'll be making direct eye contact with them while he grabs mike by the chin and tugs him in to makeout sloppy-style. he'll conveniently leave hickeys up and down mike's neck when he knows mike is getting lunch with his too-touchy friend the next day. he has that boy on lock and he knows it and thinks everyone else should too

- mike loving the feeling of people playing with/petting his hair, to the point where every person in the party (as well as his family) has, at some point, been subjected to him coming up to them and practically forcing his head onto their shoulder or lap and then melting the second they start toying with his curls. he's fallen asleep like that so many times that, one year on his birthday, the party gifts him an entire photo album full of pictures of him sleeping on others while they stroke his hair

i could go on and on — will loving horror movies, mike crying during those late-night charity commercials, will dressing in dark clothing and blasting punk rock while he paints, mike having a special bath time robe and dessert-scented soaps, etc etc etc.

🗣️ hello is this thing on???

TW Suggestive art under cut:

Mike Wheeler BirthWeek 2026

April 1st: Favorite Variants/AUs Interacting