(cannon “stranger things” characters, season 4 plot line, characters aged up by 3 or 4 years, making all of the party 18 years old, holly wheeler is now 8.) hawkins, indiana; summer of 1986. the party has just graduated high school. max is out of her coma, now blind, but she humors her way through it with the support of lucas. back in march, mike wheeler went to visit lenora, california for spring break, to see his girlfriend, el “jane” hopper, and his best friend since forever, will byers. during this trip, this is when mike and el have their cannon fight about all of mikes letters having been signed “from, mike” and not “love, mike”. mike cared for el, but did he love her? that he wasn’t exactly sure of. the two end up mutually breaking up, but things end off on good terms, because of course, they were friends before they started dating. el also informs mike that she didn’t have will commission that painting back in lenora, in fact she had no clue what the word commission even meant. fast forward a few months later, and none of the party knows the two have broken up, neither of them having thought or felt like mentioning it. now that it’s summer, jonathan, will, and el come back to hawkins to visit for the summer, and thus begins some strange feelings stirring up for mike, pertaining to his best friend. you know that sort of scene in a cheesy 80s movie, when the main crush has this sort of glow filter around them as the love interest notices them for the first time? that’s what it was like when mike sees will again, and he can’t quite place the feeling, he tells himself it’s just because he missed his best friend. with robin now intergrated into the group, her and will hit off, platonically of course, because the two of them are gay, respectively, and they bond over that. mike of course, doesn’t realize this, and he thinks that will has a crush on robin, and is mike… jealous? huh. he tells himself it’s just because he missed his best friend, but is that really all? and if that’s true, then why does mikes heart race whenever him and will accidentally even brush hands? mike confesses first au!!