The Effect Heteronormativity Has On How Watchers View Byler Keeps Me Up At Night So I Wrote Out Their

the effect heteronormativity has on how watchers view byler keeps me up at night so i wrote out their story but took out names & instead used “boy” and “girl”

read this and tell me it’s not romantic:

boy asks girl to be friends on the first day of kindergarten.

boy has girls artwork all over his walls. boy has a binder full of girls drawings.

girl goes missing in 7th grade and boy does everything in his power to find her.

when girl is found and is recovering in the hospital boy is the only one not sleeping while waiting for her to wake up and when she does wake up he runs to her room and lays his head on her chest.

a year later when girl is struggling with ptsd, boy is always there for her. when she leaves school early to go to the doctor, he stares longingly and sadly at her empty desk. he notices when she’s quiet, even though she’s always quiet. when she has a flashback on halloween he puts an arm around her and takes her back to his house safely and talks about what she’s going through. when she’s going through something extremely scary he sleeps on her floor so she won’t have to be alone. when she goes back to the hospital, boy sleeps in a chair next to her bed. when girl is possessed and loses her memory, she only remembers her mom and boy. later on, boy starts crying and says asking her to be his friend on the first day of kindergarten is the best thing he’s ever done.

when boy gets a girlfriend, girl and boy start having problems for the first time in their relationship. after 6 months, boy and girl get in a fight over boy ruining their friend group by spending all of his time with his girlfriend, and girl leaves his house. boy bikes across town in the rain to her house and bangs on her door screaming apologies and begging her to come out so they can talk.

when girl is packing to move away, she assures boy she won’t move on from him and their friend group and he reacts like this:

then boy’s girlfriend, who is moving away with girl’s family too, says she loves him and kisses him and he reacts like this:

when boy is leaving girls house after she’s gone, he looks back at her house sadly and bikes away. he goes home to his mom and this happens:

6 months later when boy goes to visit his girlfriend and girl across the country, boy is awkward to girl and won’t hug her, even though it had never been weird for them to hug before. he just pats her on the shoulder.

boy, girl, and boy’s girlfriend go to a roller rink where girl feels ignored and like a third wheel. boy’s girlfriend gets publicly bullied and runs away. while boy and girl are looking for her boy gets angry at girl for moping, not talking, and rolling her eyes because she “sabotaged the whole day”, even though it seemed like he was ignoring her.

their argument goes like this:

girl: well what about us?

boy: *stops walking and turns around* what?

girl: you’re mad that i didn’t talk to you? you’ve made it clear you’re not interested in anything i have to say

boy: that’s just not true.

girl: you called maybe a couple of times, it’s been a year. meanwhile [girlfriend] has a book of letters from you.

boy: that’s because she’s my girlfriend!

girl: and us?

boy: we’re friends! we’re. friends.

girl: well we used to be best friends!

boy: …well maybe you should’ve reached out more, i don’t know, but why is this on me? why am i the bad guy?

later on, boy comes in girls room and thanks her for knocking some sense into him because he was being a total self pitying idiot. when he starts to talk about the last few days, girl says she deserved it and boy assures her she didn’t deserve anything he did to her. boy says their friends back home are great, but it’s not the same without girl. and maybe he was worrying too much about his girlfriend and lost girl. boy says he wants them to go back to being best friends.

also during this trip, boy’s girlfriend gets upset with him because he’s never said “i love you” to her. he signed all of his letters with “from, boy”, and he still doesn’t say it even when she’s crying and practically begging him to.

boy talks to girl about how he’s afraid his girlfriend doesn’t need him anymore and feels inferior to her.

girl gives boy a painting she made for him and confesses her love for him, but uses his girlfriends name to cover it up, so boy thinks this is actually his girlfriend’s feelings. she says she’s afraid of losing him and will always need him, and that he is the heart of their group and everything would fall apart without him.

after this, boy is able to say “i love you” to his girlfriend, but they are distant after it and his girlfriend doesn’t talk to him much.

Byler from other people POVS fic list

some light-hearted cute fics where where everyone already figured out what is actually going on between Will and Mike, before the two of them say anything.

Mike Wheeler and the G-Word

by lunii_vii

A coming-of-age fic in which everyone realizes at their own times that Mike Wheeler is queer, but leave him to figure it out himself. (Each chapter is from a different character's POV.)

14k words

13/13 chapters

Note: very cute fic, especially chapter 11 and 12, they had me giggling and kicking my feet.

almost but not quite

by Marigold_Flowers

“Lucas you have to tell me —” she pats his arm vigorously— “is Mike blushing?” Lucas takes a moment to process this but Max can tell the moment he understands what she’s been trying to say all along when he starts patting her arm back. “Oh my God, he totally is,” he says, and he sounds awed, like he’s just made a world-changing discovery. “Is this what you meant?”. “That they’re totally crushing on each other?” Screw subtlety. “Duh.”

Or -- 5 times people agree that Will and Mike have a crush on each other + the time they discover the truth

20k words

2/2 chapters

Note: y’all have to read this one it’s just so awesome. i looove happy slice of life fics, so when i read this it became one of my favorites.

this secret language that we’re speaking

by afterglowssss

“I can’t see,” Will announces, and immediately—and when Lucas says immediately, he means the second the sentence left his mouth—he jumps onto Mike’s back, and Mike has absolutely zero reaction, he just grabs onto Will’s legs so he doesn’t, like, fall off.

OR lucas doesn’t quite understand will and mike, until he does

1k words

1/1 chapter

Note: this is a private work, so you need an account to read it. this one is really nice and well written, so if you have ten minutes i would give it a quick read

mama said you can’t hurry love

by andiwriteordie

this fic is the first part of the 9 part serie “let’s hear it from the boys”, that i strongly recommend, and the first parts are all in theme with this post, but i’ll only put the two fics i liked the most. You can read both of them without reading the other parts.

Before Mike is out of an earshot, she calls, “Mike!”The young teenager turns back around. “Yeah?”“Thank you,” Joyce says, suddenly feeling choked up. “For being Will’s best friend.” Mike’s expression softens, and a familiar sort of fondness—something she’s seen more than once on Will’s face—forms on his face. “Like I said,” he says quietly, “it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Or: Will and Mike over the years, as seen through the eyes of Joyce Byers.

8k words

1/1 chapters

Note: also private, it goes from when Will and Mike are little babies to… well you have to read to find out ;)

the winner takes it all

by andiwriteordie

also part of the serie “let’s hear it from the boys”, you don’t have to read the other parts to understand this one

“Honestly, I bet they’ll end up dating at one point or another. I’ve just got a feeling.” “I’ll take that bet,” Steve says, voice filled with certainty. “Bet you ten bucks Wheeler and Byers are just friends and don’t get together.”

Or: Robin and Steve make a bet on whether Will and Mike will end up together. Naturally, chaos ensues.

9k words

1/1 chapters

Note: another private, when the description says “Naturally, chaos ensues” believe it. I’m not sure if it is a slice of life, but it sure did feel like one lol. It’s a pretty chaotic and fun fic, and i loved reading byler on robin’s POV

i think there is someone (you love)

by fireflywitch

El thinks Will’s been acting weird. But he’s not the only one. Featuring excessive 80s pop synth, secret dance parties, the sick, ruinous embarrassment of existence, blue paint spills, motel room realizations, dictionary definitions, and that four letter word.

22k words

4/4 chapters

Note: this fic is one of my faves! the author understands El so well (this is one of the best interpretations of her character I've seen) and Will is awesome here. Follows s4 and beyond.

Dustin Henderson, the Scientific Method, and Homosexuality

by crow_of_crimes (Theyna_Shipper)

Dustin Henderson is, if nothing else, a firm believer in the scientific method. As a bug collector since age 4, an aspiring computer scientist since 5th grade, a member of Hawkins A/V since 6th grade, a science camp attendee since 7th grade, and a boy with a lifelong passion for science, he recognizes its principles: careful observation, study, and peer review. So when strange things begin to happen in Hawkins, that fall outside the usual nature of strange things that happen in Hawkins, he returns to his roots to find the answers. After all, the scientific method applies to social science, too. And if any observation ever needed careful dissection, it was this one.

Or: Dustin Henderson applies the scientific method to figure out why two of his best friends have been acting so strangely.

3k words

1/1 chapter

Note: Dustin in this fic really feels like season 2 Dustin and that was really cute

friend of my brother is my enemy (or something like that)

by rosesgf

Jonathan would never hear the end of it if Will found out what he’s doing, so he needs to be subtle. Just enough to get Mike to treat him better. Just enough to redirect things. He settles on a stern, “Mike, I think we need to have a talk.”

7k words

1/1 chapters

Note: I just loved so much how they characterized Mike. angst warning, but like it’s like very good angst

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obsessedwithbyler

3 months ago

obsessed with byler again this can't keep happening to me