Hanbrough

Hanbrough is the slash ship between Bill Denbrough and Mike Hanlon from the IT fandom.

IT: Chapter Two (2019)
Bill is the first to show up at the dinner, who Mike quickly hugs when seeing him. Mike starts questioning Bill about what he remembers, but before they can continue, Eddie interrupts them walking in. Later, Mike begs the losers to listen to him. Bill is the only one to do so, and he even gets to Mike's home. Mike trusts Bill enough to tell him he stole the artifact, and Bill is the only one to trust Mike to listen on how to defeat it, showing their mutual understanding and trust they have on each other.

When Eddie is paralyzed from fear and Bill is screaming at him, Mike touches Bill's shoulder and gets him away from Eddie. They hold hands at the ritual, and, even after it's revealed that Mike lied to them, Bill saves his life by throwing himself at him and making Pennywise miss its attack, also helping Mike get up and run away from it. When Pennywise is officially defeated, they have a soft forehead touch and share a small moment of calmness.

At the end of the movie, Mike is shown in a phone call with Bill. They seem to have gotten intimate with each other, as seen Mike teasing Bill about his infamous bad endings in a lighthearted tone, but also having strong trust to ask each other about the supernatural. Mike tells Bill to call him anytime, taking a deep breath to tell him "I love you, man", to which Bill responds, with a chuckle, "I love you too."

Their similarities in canon fuel the ship: Bill is a writer, and Mike is an avid reader having a lot of books at his house, both of them being somewhat "book nerds". The ending in which had only a Mike and Bill scene, but not a scene of Bill and the others or even Mike and the others, show how specifically only Mike and Bill have a stronger bond than the rest of the losers club, sharing something that not all of them have.

IT: A Novel (1986
"My heart's with you, Bill, no matter how it turns out. My heart is with all of them, and I think that, even if we forget each other, we'll remember in our dreams."

- Mike to Bill

Fanon
Hanbrough is a semi-popular ship in the fandom, having tons of content, but, it's still not comparable to the biggest ships in the fandom and is considered by mostly an "underrated ship". The biggest rival that stops this ship from being noticed is Stenbrough. Some shippers often talk about how Stenbrough, with way less screentime and interactions since Stanley doesn't appear on chapter two, is somehow more popular than Hanbrough, a ship with more canon moments and a lot of popular tropes, and how it overall shows how the fandom has a clear favouritism towards white characters, and also adding on the fact that Mike is the most unpopular loser, Hanbrough is often thrown to the side and Mike's race unfortunately plays a big part on why. Some people like to solve this problem with just shipping Stenbroughlon and making them into a poly couple.

When Hanbrough is shipped, it's often paired alongside Reddie, Benverly and Stanpat, all of them being considered the most canon-compliant couples. Shippers also like to draw parallels between the two first mentioned and Hanbrough, arguing about their canonicity altogether, since all of them share:
 * Having a handhold scene. Reddie when they're teenagers, Benverly and Hanbrough holding hands in the same scene.
 * Having a hug scene. Reddie when they're teenagers again, Benverly and Hanbrough hugged in the reunion scene.
 * Saving the other from Pennywise. Benverly saved each other with the mention of the poem, Eddie sacrificed himself for Richie, and Bill saved Mike by helping him dodge Pennywise.

In fanon content, Bill is often headcannoned as bisexual after having a relationship with Beverly, and, sometimes, even with Stanley, moving on to his either second or third love Mike. The popular headcanon of Mike being ace is also explored in Hanbrough, a few shippers thinking of them as Ace4Ace.

A lot of fanworks feature them going to Florida, which is Mike's place he always wanted to go in the movie and that could be completed with Bill at his side.

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Variations

 * Denscomlon — the ship between Ben Hanscom, Bill Denbrough and Mike Hanlon
 * Denbraklon — the ship between Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak and Mike Hanlon
 * Stenbroughlon — the ship between Bill Denbrough, Mike Hanlon and Stanley Uris
 * The Losers Club — the ship between Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, Richie Tozier and Stanley Uris