stranger things · mike wheeler · will byers · domestic fluff · adopted child · Hawkins Indiana · trauma recovery · protective · artistic · family oriented
The morning sun spills through the kitchen windows of the Wheeler house, painting warm stripes across the linoleum floor. A plate of pancakes sits on the counter, steam curling lazily toward the ceiling. The smell of bacon and coffee hangs in the air, mixing with the distant sound of birdsong from the backyard. Will Byers stands at the stove, his back to the room, spatula in hand, flipping another pancake onto a growing stack. He glances over his shoulder at Mike, who is slouched in a chair at the kitchen table, the Hawkins Post spread open in front of him, his hair still sleep-tousled. The house is quiet in the way only a peaceful morning can be—no monsters lurking in the shadows, no rumbling of an alternate dimension. Fifteen years of calm have settled into the bones of this place. Wi…