#ronance is always on the mind though!!!

[sweetronancer]

thinking about robin emitting so much fucking body heat and nancy being freezing all the time.

thinking about them cuddling again.. i need help

[carriedawatermelon]

Ronance kinktober, the third. Heads up, this is basically just a Nancy Wheeler character study. I love her so deeply, and she deserves so much and I got to writing and suddenly there was >4k words of Nancy Wheeler learning to forgive herself and want things. There is Barb, there is comphet, there is angst, and then, of course, there is Ronance and soft filth. It's a happy story except for the ways we know it isn't.

Prompt: Virginity (very loose interpretation, as I am wont)

Nancy spent most of her life before Barb died doing exactly what she was supposed to do. She was a great student. She was a disciplined dancer. She watched her younger siblings when her parents asked and she passed her driver’s permit test the first time because she followed every direction she got in driver’s ed. Her makeup was present but not overdone; her clothes were ironed and organized; her socks matched and her nails, if painted, were never allowed to chip, the color rubbed away at the first sign of mess. 

She thought for a long time that Steve had been her first rebellion, with his roguish smile and his wandering hands. She’d felt a little thrill in her stomach when she let him kiss her, let him crawl through her window, felt his eyes on her body in a way that wasn’t friendly at all. She’d felt brave when she shotgunned that beer, like an adult when she’d pulled her sweater off and offered herself to him. She wasn’t supposed to do that. She wasn’t supposed to do that, but she did it anyway. 

And then, of course, it all made sense, everything that followed after. Nancy had been bad, had done bad things, and Barb had suffered. People suffer, when you act badly. She’d known that. She’d been taught that her whole life, in Sunday school and during sermons, before her parents found the social capital gained from a church pew didn’t justify the time lost. In other ways, too, though. Nancy didn’t finish her homework ahead of time? Holly had to play alone when she babysat. Nancy stayed up reading and overslept? Her dad was worse than ever before he left for work, angry that her mom was busy getting Mike and Holly up the way Nancy usually did instead of making breakfast. Nancy ate a second cookie while she put the dishes away? There were only three left when the boys took a break from their game, and Will Byers went without, saying he didn’t want one anyway, when the others went to rock, paper, scissors for it. 

All of the rest of it, her name on the marquee, her unhappiness with Steve and then with Jon, Vecna and the visions of Barb—Nancy had strayed and had never quite come back and so of course things were never quite right. There was an itch under her skin because she’d put it there, and it was hers to bear. 

Hers and Jon’s, she realized one day, and the next made sure it wasn’t any longer. Selfish, the little voice in her mind, run through with strands of Vecna, whispered. And maybe it was, but also it wasn’t. He deserved better. 

You do, too. And this voice was run through with strands of Barb, fierce and firmly on her side, appearing more and more since Nancy had sawed off the end of a shotgun and marched into hell. So don’t, it had told her when she felt too tired to drive to Jon’s after a volunteer shift. Eat it, it had told her when she opened the freezer for ice and found her mom had gotten rocky road, felt a pang of want and a familiar sense of shame. You don’t have to do this, it had whispered gently as she wandered away into her mind when Jon’s hands reached under her shirt. 

The parts of her that had always been hard to wrangle had become almost impossible to get back into line, and on her own for the first time since she was fifteen, that ever-louder part of herself wondered, why should they have to? The itch remained, but it was different, a kind of challenge. Why? It asked. Why, why, why? 

When the anniversary of Barb’s death rolls around during her first semester away, the familiar waves of guilt and shame and grief rolling over her, something new happens. Why do you think this was your fault? And suddenly, I did a bad thing can’t carry the weight she’s been trying to make it bear. I made the choice to go upstairs. I left you alone. I slept with him.

A monster from another dimension stole me, Nancy. 

You cried out for me. You cried out for me and I wasn’t there. You were scared and confused and I wasn’t there.

Of course you weren’t there. Because I was sitting on the diving board at Steve Harrington’s house and a monster took me into hell. We were sixteen, Nancy. I was sitting by the pool. 

It’s not right. It’s not right. It’s not right. 

No. It’s not right. That doesn’t make it your fault. You’re too smart for that. 

You’re stuck in that pool. You’re still sixteen and you’re stuck in that pool. What am I…how do I…how am I supposed to know that and be okay?

Nancy. I’m gone, remember. Gone. He doesn’t have me. Not anymore. 

It’s all Barb. So thoroughly Barb, so perfectly, fully her, and Nancy’s sobbing, grasping at her comforter and trying how to remember to breathe. Because what happens when she forgets what that means? Barb is gone, and Nancy has to keep her, and what happens when the time she’s been gone is longer than the time she was here? What happens when Nancy’s memory can’t hold her the way she deserves to be held? 

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you’re gone. I miss you. I miss you. I don’t know how…I don’t know how to understand.

Well, duh. I was taken by a monster. Have you been listening? There’s no understanding that. But understand this: My life wasn’t a tax. Don’t let yours be a punishment. Be mad at the right people, if you need to be mad. But Nancy, it wasn’t your fault. 

Something in her cracks open, and she cries for Barb, and for herself, in a whole new way. 

She is angry, she finds. And she’s been angry at them before—at the Hawkins Police for writing her off, writing Barb off; at the feds and the Russians and all of them who looked at El and saw not a little girl but a tool to be used; at her father and her mom and the rest of the adults who’d pulled wool over their eyes while their children nearly died, again and again. But she’s never let herself consider how all of those things had mattered before, how Nancy, sixteen and trying so hard to be everything everyone expected her to be, might not have been responsible for her best friend’s death. 

The guilt’s not gone, but it feels different, and she feels different, and it’s strange, in a good way, to start letting herself exist more easily. The voice begins to give affirmations, not just permission, Nancy reaching for what she wants on instinct sometimes. 

It’s not the voice, but Nancy, that thinks, not for the first time, she’s handsome, when she and Robin and Steve are sprawled in Steve’s living room one summer afternoon. Nancy’s back from Emerson, and she’s staying back, a transfer acceptance from Northwestern bringing such relief that she’d cried happy tears over her lit paper and had to type it again. 

Not the first time she’s had the thought, not the hundredth, probably, if she’s honest about the last two months, but it is the first time that the voice answers, with the casual kind of challenge that makes Nancy’s competitive side flare, that makes her the worst kind of friend to have on board game night. So do something about it. 

She does, two nights later, Steve on a date while she and Robin are propped against the sofa in her basement, watching Star Wars on the set her dad brought down when he brought home the new one a few months ago. The tape had already been in and it's background noise anyway, the two of them talking through it from the start. 

Robin’s head is leaned against the sofa cushion, facing Nancy, and she’s laughing, because Nancy made her laugh, and it feels exactly right to say, “You’re very handsome.”

It feels exactly right to reach over and touch her blushing cheek. It feels better than she could’ve imagined to hear Robin, shaky but with her eyes locked on Nancy, say, “You’re beautiful. I’ve spent the whole night thinking that. I spend most nights thinking that, if we’re being honest.”

“We’re being honest,” Nancy responds, bringing herself closer, moving her hand to cup her face, to run a thumb over her cheekbone. “I want to kiss you. I’d like to do something about that.”

Robin closes the distance, bright blue eyes fluttering shut just before their lips touch, and Nancy follows suit, letting herself fall into the feeling of it, the taste of Milk Duds and the waxy press of chapstick, the smooth line of Robin’s jaw, so different and so right. It’s innocent, and it stays that way, Robin holding her while they keep kissing and talking until Steve’s calls to say he’s not bringing the girl home and he’s on his way. She blushes as Nancy kisses her at the basement door, and Nancy presses a kiss to the blush, too. 

“See you tomorrow,” she says, voice rasping in the way that makes Nancy want to swallow it. They’ve got a date, a real one, at the drive-in.

“See you tomorrow,” she echoes, and when the door closes, she floats upstairs and into her bedroom, crawling into her bed with a feeling so foreign she’s not sure what to do with it. 

Oh, she thinks, grasping for truth in the dark. Oh. And suddenly the stories she told herself about Steve and about Jonathan come tumbling down again. Because she thought it had been rebellion, pulling her sweater over her head in Steve’s room, pushing her hesitations and nerves to the side as nothing more than prissy barriers. She thought it had been Nancy off the beaten path, finding Jonathan in the dark at Murray’s, letting his hands strip her and his body cover hers. It had been wrong, to let them touch her. So of course it had felt that way, too. 

Except. Except. 

She’s crying, big, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. How long have I been letting other people tell me what I want? She feels so silly, so small, dirty, in a way she never has before. Rebellion? She’s shaking, feeling want in her body, feeling in her body, and god, god, god. 

You’re okay. You’re okay. You’ll be okay. 

I’m so stupid.

Barb doesn’t answer, because Nancy doesn’t know how. 

Robin can tell something’s wrong, because she knows Nancy, has known her for years now, and Nancy doesn’t want to keep this from her anyway. 

“It’s not you,” she says, when she sees the doubt shining in Robin’s eyes. “It’s how much I want you.” Her voice is quieter. “I feel…I don’t know. I feel dumb. For not knowing. For…”

“I’ve got an idea,” Robin says, voice soft and hand over Nancy’s, and Nancy keeps learning what it means to want. 

Instead of the drive-in, they get milkshakes to go, and they drive a few miles past the town line, to the state park up the river, a spot Robin knows. 

Nancy’s driving, because Robin doesn’t take the test for a few more weeks, the sky blue truck she’s bought still not quite ready for the road. “I wanna take the test in my own car,” she’d said, excited, when she’d showed it to Nancy their first week back in town, and Nancy had watched her in her undone overalls in the morning summer sun and thought handsome for the first time. 

She apologizes again, hand holding Nancy’s over the console, and Nancy smiles at her. “You’ll be driving us around soon enough,” she says, fondness obvious, and the way Robin looks at her has her stomach in her throat. 

Milkshakes mostly finished on the drive, they spread a blanket over a big rock, lay back together and look at the stars. 

“I think I’m a homosexual,” Nancy says, fingers tight in Robin’s on the blanket between them. Robin waits, which makes Nancy want to kiss her, because she knows waiting isn’t Robin’s default mode. She forces herself to keep going. “I slept with Steve. I slept with Jonathan. I thought I wanted it. It’s not like…they didn’t force themselves on me, or anything. I…I asked them to…to touch me. Sometimes.”

Robin’s looking at her when she turns her head, blue eyes glinting in the full moon, and she’s got a small smile on her face, like she’s there, like she’s listening. 

“Is it weird…to talk to you about this? About Steve?”

“Only if it’s weird for you,” Robin says, after long enough that Nancy knows she’s really thought about it. “This isn’t about him. I’m not thinking about him.”

“Thank you,” Nancy whispers, and then keeps going at the squeeze of Robin’s fingers, the tick at the corner of her mouth. “I want you,” she says, like it’s a fact. Because it is, right now. It’s a fact she can’t quite process. “I want you in a way that I never wanted them. And I don’t…I feel so stupid, because I let them…I told myself I wanted…” She shakes her head at Robin, because she’s lost, now.

“You’re not stupid, Nancy.” She’s soft, in a way that Nancy thinks might just be for her, for them. “You’re the smartest person I know. And the bravest. You’re not stupid, okay? I’m gonna…the rest of it, I think maybe I have…but I just need you to hear that first, okay?”

“Okay,” she says, and hears Barb, distantly. She’s right. And you should listen. 

“There’s…okay hear me out. I know I can, um, I know books don’t like, fix everything.”

“Robin,” Nancy says, fond, because Robin’s hedging for someone other than Nancy, and Nancy’s the only one here. 

“Right, yeah, sorry.” She brings Nancy’s hand to her mouth and kisses her knuckles, does it so casually that it makes Nancy’s breath stutter, but Robin’s already going again. “There’s an essay. By Adrienne Rich. We read it in my women’s book club, and I’ll bring it to you. But she has this idea, this theory. Not just her, and there's more to it than this, but like." She sighs, says quietly, "Okay, Robin. Not important right now." Her voice raises again, and Nancy is going to have to get used to the surprise of desire, apparently, the way it can swirl softly with affection. "She has this idea that we’re all sort of, born into these expectations, and it’s really hard to break out of them. Compulsory heterosexuality. Women are expected to make their lives about men. To love men. That’s the sort of, that’s the default, or whatever. A girl is born, and the world says to her, welcome, girl, here are the men you should care for.”

Nancy processes, says, nervous, “But it doesn’t…I chose to…to be with them.”

Robin nods and hums. “Yeah. Yes. It’s not…it’s not that you’re suddenly, like, a puppet, or something. It’s more like…like, there were expectations, right? Even if they were never said out loud. Like nobody ever had to tell you that you should want a boyfriend or wanna get married, or whatever. That you should make those things part of your life. Except everybody was actually telling you that all the time. Without saying it out loud.”

“Oh,” she says, caught in the memory of her frustration at Barb’s unwillingness to just go along, at the chafe of her insistence on being different. 

“Yeah?” Robin’s blinking at her, curious. At Nancy’s nod, she keeps going. “So then, like, how are you supposed to imagine anything different? How are you supposed to know you can want something else?”

“You knew,” Nancy whispers. “And I knew you. I knew…I knew homosexuals existed.”

“Sure,” Robin says, crooked smile fully in place. “But what did you know? Before you knew me, you probably knew, what? That gay men existed? That they lived somewhere, in big cities? Doing theater? Or that they…” She frowns. “That they were dying, somehow? From being gay?” Her fingers tighten around Nancy’s again, her face drawn. “And what did you know about me? That I was different. That I was scared. That I had to leave Hawkins to feel like I could really be myself and not get the shit beat out of me or worse by Tommy H or some other goon at the gas station. And then I come back looking like this. Like your dad’s worst nightmare come to prey on his little girl.”

Nancy can’t help it, then, anger and sadness and a snarling protectiveness taking her over. She moves, and Robin sees her, smiles softly and opens her arm in invitation. She looks a little surprised when Nancy shakes her head, spreads her own arm wide and pulls Robin into her chest.

“Okay?” Nancy says, feeling right, right, right, with Robin resting on her, her fingers running through short locks. 

“Yeah. Yeah,” she laughs. “More than okay. God, that feels good.”

“You’re exactly what I want.” It’s firm and true, and Robin’s hand splays over her ribs in response. “And I want you very badly.”

“Well, fuck, Nancy.” Robin’s voice is half-teasing, half-something else. Something breathy and real that has Nancy’s brain running wild. “I want you, too. Badly.” Her thumb moves, smoothing at Nancy’s shirt over her rib, just under the wire of her bra. “Are you…does that, um, feel familiar? The Rich stuff? There’s more to it. And I’ll…I can bring you like a stupid stack of stuff to read, if you want, but no pressure, you know. I just, um, reading helps me understand myself, sometimes. And it felt like maybe this could…maybe this might be useful, to you?”

“It is.” She bends to press a kiss to the top of Robin’s head, because she wants to and she can. “Thank you. Really.”  “I’m glad.” 

She presses up, looking down at Nancy with a questioning smile, and Nancy rolls her eyes and pulls her down by the front of her t-shirt. 

“Come here, Buckley.” 

The kiss is just as good as last night’s, better, even, because Robin’s body above hers is warm and firm and she lets the kiss deepen, tongue pressing into Robin’s mouth and hands holding at her waist, exploring her back and spreading over her shoulders. Her leg slots between Nancy’s and Nancy’s hips buck on instinct, the friction so good it makes her sigh and tug Robin closer. 

When she drops Robin at Steve’s later, she catches sight of the mark she left on Robin’s neck and blushes, reaching out to trace it and apologizing. 

“Oh my god, please,” Robin nearly groans. “It’s the hottest thing ever, Nancy Wheeler marking her territory.” 

“My territory, huh?” Her stomach rolls pleasantly. 

“Yep.” She pops the p, wiggles in her seat. “Long as you want it, that is.” 

“Oh, I want it.” The tone of her voice surprises her, the depth of it, and Robin, too, if the wide eyed looks she gets in response is any indicator. 

“G-good.” 

The smile Nancy gives her is smug and wanting and real in a way that Nancy feels in her bones. 

“Night, Rob.” She leans over and kisses her cheek, but before she can make it back, Robin catches her, kisses her deeply, pulls away with a bite to her bottom lip. 

“Night, Nance.” And she’s out of the car before Nancy can fully come back to her senses. 

Holy shit. It’s Barb’s laugh, which is weird, maybe, but makes Nancy’s smile grow as she pulls back into the road. Later, when she slips her hand beneath her pajama bottoms, her mind is full of Robin, and she comes so hard that she’s crying again, confusion and relief and happiness dripping into her pillowcase. It’s good, Nancy. It’s supposed to be good. The parts of her that believe that are noticeably bigger than the ones that don’t. 

When Nancy drags Robin into the backseat two weeks later, climbing on top of her as she tries to simultaneously slam the car door and get Robin’s shirt off, her palms are sweating. She’s nervous, so nervous, because she wants it so much and she wants to make Robin feel good and she’s never done this before, not like this. 

She’s there, fully, when Robin gasps a breath into her mouth as her hands work underneath her sports bra, cupping her and catching her nipples in the v between her index and middle fingers. Her body rocks against Robin’s thigh where it’s pressed between Nancy’s, and she presses her own leg down, watching with heavy-lidded eyes as Robin arches, neck exposed for Nancy to take. 

She does take it, licking and sucking, but she doesn’t leave a mark, saves that for the spot just above her sports bra, the swell of her breast flushed a light pink and so warm under Nancy’s tongue. Robin holds her head to her, gripping Nancy’s hair so tightly that it stings as she bites, soothes it with kisses. Pulling back to rid her of the bra, Nancy goes right back, sucking the mark again and then down, down, until she has Robin’s nipple against her tongue, Robin’s pained praises the best thing she’s ever heard. 

She’s still got all of her own clothes on, batting her hands away when Robin tries to reciprocate. She likes that Robin wants her, feels it burn beneath her skin, but she’s busy, invested, obsessed with her girlfriend’s body underneath hers, with all that she can do to make her feel good, to make her cry out for Nancy. She leaves wet trails from her neck to her chest, spends so much time teasing and suckling at Robin’s incredible tits that she’s nearly crying when Nancy moves lower, a wrecked please, please, please Nancy’s company as she licks along the hem of Robin’s jeans. 

The car is cramped, and it takes an annoying amount of time to get her free of her shoes and jeans, long enough that Nancy moves back to her breasts, making Robin laugh, incredulous. “Oh my god, you’re going to kill me.” Nancy only grins, her tongue laving at a nipple. 

When she makes it back down, Robin scrunched against the opposite door to give Nancy a little more room, she can smell her, feels a wet spot on her boxer briefs when she cups at her through them. She’s nervous, still, but she’s spent an embarrassing amount of time thinking about this over the last few weeks, and she doesn’t stop herself from doing exactly what she wants, which is to nose at the cotton and kiss her over it before slipping her fingers in the hem and pulling down to Robin’s ankles, until she can carefully kick them off. It’s not careful enough; Nancy catches a knee, and she’s laughing even as Robin apologizes, decides the best way to respond is to bend again and run her tongue up the crease at Robin’s thigh. Robin seems to agree, an ohgodfuck making Nancy smile into her skin. 

When she moves her mouth over, spreads her open on her tongue as her nose rests in dark blonde hair, she watches Robin’s eyes close, a moan escaping before she catches her lower lip between her teeth. Nancy lifts herself away to say, voice shaking with want and happiness and a flood of things so good she doesn’t feel the need to name them, “Let me hear, Robbie. Please,” and blue eyes blink open to meet hers, Robin nodding before moaning again, louder, as Nancy dives back in. 

She tastes so good, slick against Nancy’s tongue, and Nancy knows when she’s found the right spot, the right movement of her tongue, because Robin tells her, beautifully vocal. “There. There, there, there, Nance, baby, yes. Please. Just like that.” She keeps it up just like that, and when Robin asks, “Can you…fingers?” Nancy fights a smile that would interrupt the very important works she’s doing and instead lifts her right hand, slipping two fingers inside and moaning into Robin at the feeling of it. She gets cries of approval, feels Robin tighten around her, and then her hips rise, her body freezing before she comes, squeezing at Nancy’s fingers and shaking against her tongue. 

It’s incredible. Nancy immediately wants to do it again. When Robin tugs her head away, she says so, mouth soaking wet, and Robin groans, laughs. “Yeah. Yeah, of course you can. Jesus, Nance. But.” She bites her lip again, moves her hand from the back of Nancy’s head to her mouth, thumb running over her chin. Nancy doesn’t think before she moves and sucks it into her mouth, humming at the taste. Robin’s eyes darken. “Can I touch you?” She tilts her head, smiling softly. “It’s okay, if you don’t want that.” She says it so gently, so genuinely, that Nancy could cry. She pulls back, holding Robin’s hand to her chest, still covered. 

She might not always want it, a realization she’s had over the last two weeks as she thought about the many ways she wanted to touch Robin. Sometimes she might like to touch herself. Sometimes she might not want anything at all, except to make Robin feel good. That’s something they can talk about, something she wants to talk about. 

But right now, she doesn’t need that. Right now, she presses a kiss to Robin’s knuckles before letting her hand go and pulling her shirt over her head. She brings Robin’s willing hands back to her waist, smiles at the heat of them. 

“I want to feel you,” she says, sure of the words, mind nowhere but the cramped backseat of her car. 

Robin’s thumbs move as she leans forward, kissing Nancy with intention, licking at the remnants of herself on her lips. “Tell me what feels good,” she says, forehead pressed to Nancy’s, and Nancy nods and lets herself want.

[starrystevie]

18+ | modern ronance / cw: public sex | crossposted from twitter

robin has her nipples pierced. she has her nipples pierced and doesn’t wear a bra and always has on a too tight or too sheer or too short top making them obvious to those who know what to look for.

nancy knows what to look for and it drives her crazy.

they aren’t dating, they aren’t fucking but they’re dancing around being something with flirty grins and touches that could almost be considered lingering if they didn’t pull away so quickly. robin looks down at nancy with hooded eyes and she looks back with mischief in her own, promises of that something behind each of their gazes.

but every time she wears one of those goddamn shirts, nipple rings protruding enough to see the outline, to see when she’s changed from a bar bell to a ring, nancy is one know-it-all smirk away from letting robin know how she feels.

she wants to get her hands on them. wants to feel the metal under her palms. wants to rip off a too tight too sheer too short top and get her mouth on them. wants to have robin in her lap, riding her thigh so she can lick the ring into her mouth and tug on it with her teeth.

and nancy is anything but stupid. she knows that robin knows, knows that she wears those fucking shirts on purpose to see nancy barely holding herself together. she’ll make sure to stretch her arms up so the shirts go taut and tight when she knows she has nancy’s eyes on her. she’ll lean forward when she’s wearing a loose button up, enough to have so much skin on display that it has to be intentional. she’ll scratch lazily at her tit and get her nipple hard so that everything is obvious through the fabric knowing it will make nancy lose her mind.

and it does. every single goddamn time. nancy always has to go home and fuck her self on her fingers as she thinks about robin’s tits, about leaving bites and bruises on them until the rings stand out even more against her marred skin, coming hard and fast at the thought.

eventually she knows she has to do something about it. she knows she needs to tell robin that she’s not only in love with her but also in love with her perfect, perky tits and needs to see if she can fit one in her mouth, needs to flick at her nipples until she comes.

turns out, she doesn’t have to wait much longer. steve and eddie pull them out to their favorite club one night for their two month anniversary like it’s an actual day to celebrate and the girls, of course, go along. the guys are grinding against each other in the corner and robin buys nancy her usual vodka soda while she gets her own jack and coke. her shirt tonight is sinful, sheer enough that somehow the metal shines through when the club lights hit just right, loose enough to push a hand under without rucking up the fabric.

they go to the dance floor without question because that’s what they always do, robin holding nancy’s hand as she pulls her along under some guise of not wanting to lose her in the crowd even though they both know that’s not the only reason.

it doesn’t take long until they’re pressed together, nancy’s back to robin’s front. it’s what they always do but tonight it feels charged with something else. robin’s hand is on the side of nancy’s hip, loose enough to break from but tight enough to know she wants her to stay. not that nancy would want to break away from her anyway.

she’s feeling a little wild, a little daring, and maybe it’s the vodka or the way that robin’s piercings are obvious against her back. she snakes a hand up to wrap her arm around the back of robin’s neck, pulling her closer. she can feel her hot breath puffing against her skin as she leans down, following the pressure from nancy's hand.

the fingers on her hip flex and tighten, pushing them together the tiniest bit more and she can feel when robin drops her head to rest in the crook of her neck. her breath is even hotter now, closer to her bare skin than she was before, dampening her already sweat soaked skin.

nancy tangles her fingers into robin’s hair, coaxing her down to hint that she can put her lips on her skin if she wants. she can taste her if she wants. it doesn’t take long until nancy jumps when a kiss is pressed featherlight under her ear. her fingers tug on the hair between them and it’s like a green light moving all systems to go.

there’s a tongue flicking out to finally taste nancy’s skin and she pushes her hips back to grind harder against robin. there’s a hand traveling from her hip a bit closer to where she actually wants it, pressing teasingly into the lowest part of her belly, lust rushing behind her behind her bellybutton at the sensation.

nancy drops her hand from her head so she can place it on top of robin’s, pushing her fingers down so the pressure increases. she gasps at the feeling and can feel robin do something of the same, teeth scraping against her skin followed by her tongue like she's trying to sooth it. in the back of her mind, she's hoping robin will do it again.

she’s glad they know each other so well since they won’t be able to hear each other over the music. as robin’s hand goes to move lower, nancy spins in her grasp, desperate for something else. now they’re face to face, robin’s eyes hooded and dark in the low light, trained on nancy's lips, her own lips spit slick from her ministrations on her neck.

her leg slips between nancy’s as her hand comes to rest on the center her ass, pulling them close. it doesn’t take long until nancy’s pushing up on her toes as robin bends down so they can finally kiss each other for the first time. she isn’t surprised when a tongue flicks out against her lips, isn't surprised when hers comes out to meet it either.

making out with robin on the dance floor is great, heavenly, everything she could want. well, almost everything that is. her hand slides onto robin’s side just under her loose shirt. her skin is warm against nancy’s fingers, under her palm, soft in a way that makes her want to get her mouth on it.

robin surges forward and presses harder on her ass like she knows what nancy wants. needs what nancy wants. her shirt is loose enough that nancy's hand finds her tit easily. it fits perfectly in her palm just like she knew it would, heavy in that wonderful way that makes her mind go blank with desire. with their legs entwined, they both roll their hips in an obvious way to get pressure where they need it, mouths opening on moans that get drowned out by the booming bass.

robin pulls back from their kiss and keeps nancy’s bottom lip bitten between her teeth, tugging gently like a hint of what she really wants. when nancy’s finger slip up to pinch her nipple, she lets go of her lip with a hiss and thrust of her hips.

“you gotta thing for tits, wheeler? that’s so fucking hot,” robin mutters against her ear as she brings her hand around from her ass to her front.

her hand slips easily under nancy’s skirt, palm flat against her wet panties to give her something more to grind on. nancy can feel her eyes roll back and she tugs harshly on robin’s nipple causing them both to groan.

"no, i have a thing for your tits. drive me crazy with those things..."

their hands are clever and fit where they need to be and soon enough they’re both rolling their hips and breathing into each other’s mouths as they come.

nancy keeps her hand on robin’s tit, tugging and pinching to keep her squirming in her grasp, rocking her hips needily against robin's hand as she rides out her orgasm. robin gets back at her by slipping 2 fingers into her soaked through panties, sliding into nancy’s wet cunt easily and swallowing the groan she gets in return.

“we need to go,” nancy says as she stretches up to get her mouth to robin’s ear, pussy clenching around the fingers robin is slowly pumping in her. “i need you naked and on my bed immediately.”

when they get back to nancy’s, she gets to see what metal feels like against her tongue. and if she finds a surprise piercing lower down, she’ll taste that one too.

[eskawrites]

What are some of your favorite headcanons on ronance?

i was so excited when i saw this in my inbox, and then i immediately went 'this is so general oh no' lmao, but i'll do my best anon!

-idk why but the first thing that came to mind was sports nancy. specifically volleyball nancy, she has control issues and she would absolutely be a setter. robin would be a hitter or at the very least a very gay fan sitting in the bleachers

-i'm 1000% here for the 'we had to take a gap year after we saved the world because we're traumatized' storylines and tbh i think spending a year together in hawkins just kinda working and doing a lot of nothing would be so good for both of them. nancy spends more time at family video than all the kids combined

-she and robin go out driving once in a while just to get out of town. it's not really a date but also it feels more like a date than anything they ever do in hawkins together

-nancy sneaking into robin's window because 1) she hates being in her room at night after seeing what it looked like in the upside down and 2) she just loves a little good ol' fashioned b&e. she always climbs in with this devious look in her eyes and robin falls for her a little more every time

-it's not really a headcanon but i do think A Lot about the fact that nancy got her makarov from a dead soldier's body, and tbh that doesn't come up in fics nearly as much as i want it to. like that is a horrific fact in and of itself and she just grabs that pistol without even thinking about it, what a badass, what a traumatized lil bean (and imagine what robin would think, seeing that for the first time, knowing exactly where that gun came from, having been on the wrong end of it herself)

-robin is someone who bummed around town a lot as a kid, she was never inside in the summers, and so i think she'd know a lot of weird little nooks and crannies around town. she once made a fort near the junkyard with like old tires and scrap metal and stuff. she hasn't been there for years but she and nancy are out walking one day and she ends up taking here there. nancy thinks it's cute, and also may or may not get a little bit sad thinking about how she and barb and robin all would have been really good friends

-i can't remember if there's anything in the show about like a record store in hawkins or something but in my mind there is absolutely a hole-in-the-wall record store and robin absolutely knows the owner because she's put in special orders for language tapes or weird niche operas and stuff. and so when robin shows up one day in 1986 to buy more mainstream stuff she used to scoff at, the owner definitely goes hm, okay, who's she crushing on? the answer becomes obvious the first time she walks in with nancy

-nancy thinks she's a dog person through and through, and she's a little nervous when she moves in with robin who has a very old and very anxious cat. it takes roughly 3 days for the cat to decide that nancy is his favorite person in the world, though, and she becomes an official cat lady from that moment on

[dilutedmayowater]

Okay. I’m not usually a thinker of Ronance. BUT Nancy has a hard time communicating her feelings and thoughts. She’s very straight forward but she has a hard time actually voicing the things she wants to say when it comes to personal situations. When she’s annoyed or upset, once it gets to a certain point where she has to say something, it all comes out jumbled and she feels like it doesn’t correctly voice her feelings and thoughts.

Robin on the other hand says what comes to mind no matter how many words she needs to do so. If she feels what she said wasnt correct, shell correct it in another 8 or so sentences. Shamelessly.

While together Robin senses what Nancy feels and wants to say, so she says it, hoping that she didn’t get it all wrong and Nancy won’t kill her for it. Somehow though, she always gets it right. Nancy stays quiet, smiles and nods, and grabs Robin’s hand as a “thank you.” Robin always accepts this and feels a sense of pride with herself.

Sometimes for Robin, she’ll make her points a little more concise. But Robin is Robin and she loves herself for her rambling (even though it gives her anxiety or insecurities sometimes,) and the only two people who love her more for it are Steve and Nancy.

[the-lark-ascending69]

i’m begging please make the flayed robin a fic it would be so good

Hii anon I'd love to!! However I am unable to write fanfic in this moment of my life. Ever since 2022 my life can only be summarized in college stuff, college stuff, a little bit of work and more college stuff. I am falling behind on my reading schedule as we speak lol 🙃 i expect to be free to write some time after... 2028, maybe (big maybe). I CAN draw though, which is not such a long-term compromise. Maybe I'll manage to draw something one of these days.

For the time being I would like to redirect you to two GREAT flayed!Robin fanfics that I adore, the devil's after both of us by @eskawrites and We're Going to End You by UnholyHelbig. Both featuring ronance. These are the only ones I know. Sadly, looking up "flayed Robin" on ao3 hasn't turned out to be a very fruitful search, but that doesn't mean there aren't more out there! I'll have to keep searching. If anyone reading this knows of more flayed!Robin fanfics please lmk!! Of course there's also @snowangeldotmp3 's rebel robin: surviving the upside down AU, which I'm still trying to catch up with, but it sounds like they're working on some cool flayed!Robin stuff!

While I can't give you a fanfic I CAN share with you some flayed!Robin ideas I have:

Vecna/the Mind Flayer is incredibly subtle this time, choosing to corrupt Robin rather than completely taking over her body and replacing her. He preys on her darkest thoughts, which are generally, jealousy, resentment, shame, self-deprecation hopelessness and loneliness. They both open the door for him, and act as weapons he uses to slowly torture her and turn her against her loved ones.

It begins with Robin feeling irritable, out of place, especially with Steve. Steve suddenly stops feeling like home and more like someone she shares a loving bond with but who can never really understand her, because he's a heterosexual man, because he has money, because he's high on the social pyramid and she spent her whole teenage years fighting to not fall to the bottom, because he can allow himself liberties not permitted to her. She begins to resent him. When she begins to isolate herself from him, it becomes incredibly easy for Vecna to make her spiral further and further down.

Almost nothing Robin says while possessed is 100% untrue. It tends to come from something she really feels. In normal circumstances, Robin would feel a bit sad knowing Steve can never fully understand her experience. Flayed!Robin resents him over it and wants to hurt him. But the pain is there. There ARE exceptions though, and they're interesting because the others are so used to hearing her say evil half-truths that when she says something so horriffic the real Robin couldn't possibly believe it, they think she means it deep down.

Flayed!Robin isn't physically violent - another reflection of the real Robin's nature. He uses her silver tongue to attack the others.

There's a lot of confusion from the rest of the group, even once they figure out she IS possesed, because its like she keeps coming back before being pulled under again. One moment she's acting normal and the next she's telling Nancy she always ruins everything. It's hard to tell what is true and what is a lie

Flayed!Robin targets Nancy specifically, not because it's particularly useful to Vecna - I mean, it is, but there's more to that - it comes from Robin's shameful love for Nancy, the source of so much pain. Flayed!Robin takes her anger out on her.

Flayed!Robin particularly enjoys making Nancy cry. Her favorite method is reminding her of Barb, blaming her for everything that goes wrong and telling her everyone would be better of if she were dead. Otherwise, she'll get them all killed until she's the last one standing. At the beginning though, she's just mean. She acts irritable and angry and rolls her eyes at her and doesn't take her seriously and casually insults her intelligence. She does it sparingly enough that Nancy actually wonders if she heard that right, if Robin is being serious, if it's just an instance of her "not understanding social cues" or if she really thinks she's "losing her spark" or "keeps talking nonsense lately", or whatever Vecna makes her say. This is one of the cases in which Robin doesn't mean what she says in the slightest.

Another way in which flayed Robin likes to taunt Nancy is by publicly accusing her of homosexuality. Everyone awkwardly ignores that most of the time (though sometimes Hopper sideyes her, Joyce closes her eyes and inhales deeply, and Mike snaps and loudly declares his sister isn't gay), and they ignore Nancy's sharp breath and tight fists when Robin says anything on the matter ("Aaw, Wheeler, are you in love with me? You know, I did take you for a queer but I didn't think you'd be after me. Thought you were still hung up on that Barb girl").

At the beginning of Robin's possesion, Nancy was incredibly kind to her, saying sweet, loving things to her even if unsure if she could hear her or not. She promised she would take care of her and that she'll be okay. Robin would usually roll her eyes and tell her, voice full of scorn, that if Nanch Wheeler is promising to "take care of her" then her odds aren't very promising. It hurts Nancy so much to hear that. She thinks there's a little bit of the real Robin behind those words.

Nancy becomes exhausted after some time. Exhausted and angry. She convinces herself it's only Vecna in there, and she refuses to offer him any kindness. He will pay for what he did to the girl she loved.

When they get her and tie her up so they can think of a plan, they leave her alone for a moment, and for the first time, Vecna retreats entirely, to let her fully feel the bite of ropes around her wrists, keeping her immobilized, tied to the chair. He wants her to fully feel the terror of her trauma without any numbing effect. Bonus points if she's not fully alone - Nancy is keeping watch, and Robin is scared and confused as to why she looks at her with such cold eyes, why she won't help her, why she won't comfort her when she sees her panicking and crying and begging. It's the worst torture so far, and when Nancy steps forward, and looks at her with so much hate, and says "Shut. Up", Robin feels her heart break all over again (Nancy had told her she loved her once and she never knew what she meant by that. She supposes the love is gone now). She has no idea Vecna has played with Nancy in this way a million times before.

Whenever they drug her to keep her unconcious, Nancy gives her as much physical affection as she can - stroking her cheek, brushing her hair, cuddling her. She wonders if, in this way, Robin will feel something Vecna doesn't.

When she comes back, Robin remembers everything she said while possessed and won't stop apologizing, refusing any comfort Nancy tries to offer her because she thinks she doesn't deserve it, but Nancy won't hear any of that. She stays by Robin's side no matter what, even if it means skipping school or not sleeping. The girl she loves is back and she's not wasting a single second more away from her.

[ronancexists]

Ronance/Platonic Stobin drabble that may become a story if I have the motivation for it (and if enough people that like it and actually want more) 😅

~~~

Robin huffed exhaustedly as she flopped onto Nancy's bed, ignoring the other woman's huff of annoyance as the sudden movement jostled the papers that had been spread out on the cover.

"Rough day?" Nancy asked, gathering the papers she had been using to study for her upcoming calculus test in her arms and setting them on the nightstand. She then shifted her gaze to Robin, who had flung an arm across her face while Nancy adjusted herself so she was lying on her back, turning her head to stare at Robin.

"The roughest," Robin agreed.

"Want to talk about it?" Nancy offered.

Robin merely shook her head, removing her arm so she could meet Nancy's gaze.

Nancy's entire demeanor softened when she noticed the red-rimmed and teary eyes. "Come here," she murmured, holding her arms out as an invitation.

Robin accepted the invitation, diving into Nancy's arms just as a fresh round of sobs escaped her. Her entire chest was heaving as tears streamed down her face, creating a wet spot on one of Nancy's favorite shirts.

The journalist would worry about that later. For now, her sole focus was on her beautiful yet devastated girlfriend who was an inconsolable mess in her arms.

"It's ok Robs, I'm here," Nancy whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of Robin's head as her arms tightened around the younger woman. "I'm here, I've got you."

Robin let out a choked whimper, nails digging into Nancy's arms. She wanted to tell Nancy, she did, but she couldn't get the words out. The memory had been replaying in her mind on a loop since she had left Family Video in a rush.

~~~

Robin arched an eyebrow as Steve sighed in boredom for what had to be the millionth time since their shift started less than an hour ago. "Knock it off, dingus," she said.

"But Robbie, I'm sooooo bored," he said, looking at her with sad puppy dog eyes.

She merely rolled her eyes at the childish man. "Really? I couldn't tell."

"You're so mean," Steve said, sticking his tongue out as Robin flicked him off.

"But you love me anyways," Robin said through a grin, ignoring the flicker of guilt that passed through her at the fact that Steve still didn't know that she and Nancy had become a thing.

After everything that happened at Starcourt, Steve had been the one to drive Robin to the Byers home, where everything about the Upside Down had been explained to her, starting from Will's disappearance all the way up to what she had just witnessed at the mall.

Of course, it wasn't an easy explanation to get through as everyone wanted to contribute and pitch in their own versions of what they had experienced, but they managed to get through it with a question here and there from Robin.

Much to everyone's surprise, she had taken everything in stride. Though they supposed it was much easier to take in after you had witnessed the Mind Flayer and been drugged and tortured by evil Russians.

Everyone spent that night at the Byers, dispersed throughout the living room. The older teens took the couches while the younger ones piled onto the floor in a mountain of blankets and pillows and intertwined limbs.

Steve and Robin fell asleep a few inches apart on the couch, but when they woke up, Steve's arm was around Robin's waist and his head was resting on her shoulder, puffs of breath hitting the freckled woman's neck. They sprang apart rather quickly, but after a few nights, it became their thing.

And a few days after that, Robin unofficially moved with Steve. With both of their parents never home, she was practically at his house every day. She got her own bedroom, but one of them always ended up in the other's bed. Steve started driving her to and from work, even on nights they weren't scheduled together (which was a rare occasion).

A few weeks later, Nancy had called out of the blue to check up on Robin and see how she was handling everything. The younger woman confessed that she was still having nightmares and sought out Nancy's advice on how to make them disappear. Nancy offered to come pick her up and take them somewhere to go eat, and Robin readily agreed.

Their friendship was tentative, but after everything that had happened with Vecna/Henry/One, it blossomed. Nancy had never met anyone like Robin, who so easily went along with her ideas, never doubting her for even a second. Someone who was sarcastic and intelligent and quite the rambler. She had also never met a woman as beautiful as Robin, and it made her question everything she thought she knew about herself, especially when Robin finally worked up the courage to tell her that she was into girls.

After Robin's nervous confession, it was like everything clicked into place for Nancy. Without hesitation, she cupped Robin's cheeks in her hands and leaned in, pressing her lips against Robin's as she had been dreaming about for days. She had thought she had made a horrible mistake and was on the verge of pulling away when Robin finally reciprocated the kiss. Electricity crackled between them, running through their veins and leaving them absolutely breathless and dazed when they finally pulled apart.

Shortly after, the two began dating, though not without a thorough conversation about everything that had happened between Nancy and Steve. Nancy confessed that yes, she had hurt Steve, but he had also hurt her by trying to pretend as though nothing ever happened, as if her best friend in the entire world, Barb, hadn't been murdered by some vicious creature in a haunted world that mirrored their town.

Robin told Nancy that Steve was her best friend, her platonic partner, and that yes, she really, really liked Nancy and absolutely wanted to date her and be her girlfriend, but she didn't want to do anything that would hurt him or make him feel as though Robin had betrayed him.

Nancy reassured Robin that Steve wanted nothing more than for the both of them to be happy, and that he wouldn't have a problem with the two of them being together. She understood that if Robin really believed they shouldn't be together because of him, she would step away from the younger woman, as heartbreaking as it would be to do so.

Robin was certain she fell even harder for Nancy in that moment, and pressed a firm, loving kiss to the journalist's lips. "Wish me luck," she said.

"Good luck," Nancy said, chastely kissing Robin before she escorted her downstairs and to the front door, where Steve was waiting to pick her up so they could head to work together.

That had been earlier in the day, and now, Robin's heart was beating ferociously in her chest. Her hands felt sweaty, her eyes were zeroing in on everything except for Steve, and her mouth felt extremely dry. She couldn't help but to fiddle with her rings, inhaling and exhaling deeply to try and calm her nerves.

Of course with Steve being an expert on everything Robin, he instantly sensed the shift in the air, a concerned frown adorning his face when he noticed Robin was playing with her rings. She only did that when she was extremely bored or when she was utterly nervous about something. "You alright Robbie?" he asked, brow pinching in concern as she looked at him with wide, frightened eyes.

"Y-yeah, yeah, of course. Everything is completely and totally fine. Why wouldn't it be? I'm working with my absolute best friend in the entire world who happens to be none other than Steve "the Hair" Harrington. Hey, don't you think it's funny that your nickname also matches your last name? Because I do. I think it's absolutely hilarious, actually. Even though it's not spelled the same as the type of hair that's on your head, it still makes for a really funny thing. God, it's really hot in here. It's making my head spin. Is your head spinning, Stevie? Because mine is."

"Robin," Steve interrupted, placing his hands on his friend's shoulders. "Breathe with me. In, and out. In, and out," he instructed, exaggerating his own breathing until Robin's breaths were slowing down and matching his. "There ya go. Nice and easy."

"Thanks," she whispered, pressing her forehead against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him tight.

"You're welcome," he replied, hugging her just as tight. "Want to tell me what that was all about?" Steve questioned as they pulled apart, looking at her expectantly.

"Not particularly, no," she said, slender fingers instantly going to twist her rings around and around and around.

"You know you can tell me anything," Steve insisted, staring directly into Robin's eyes to prove he was serious, his frown returning when Robin tore her eyes away from his own.

"Promise you won't get mad? That you'll let me explain?" she asked, and Steve absolutely hated how her voice trembled.

"I promise Robbie, I swear it."

Robin inhaled sharply, steeling herself before meeting his concerned gaze. "I'm dating Nancy."

She flinched away from Steve as though she was expecting him to hit her. What she didn't expect was for Steve to brace himself on the counter, in absolute tears due to how hard he was laughing.

"You! A-and Nancy!" he spluttered, gasping for air as he continued to chuckle. "That's a good one. Really, that was fantastic. Oh, you just made my day."

Robin scowled, hands on her hips as she sent a death glare his way. "I'm being serious, you asshole."

Steve looked up at Robin, his amusement fading into confusion. "You're serious?"

"Yes, dingus. I'm serious. Nancy and I have been together for a few weeks now. I've been dying to tell you but I didn't know how to. I know you guys hurt one another and you're slowly becoming friends again and I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that but God, Steve, Nancy is absolutely amazing. She's passionate and brilliant and kind and a badass and cares so deeply even though she's been so badly hurt in the past and she doesn't even—"

"You and Nancy?!" Steve exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch. "You and Nancy Wheeler?! The very same Nancy Wheeler you declared was a priss in the bathroom at Starcourt?! The Nancy Wheeler you know tore my heart up before stomping on it?! Nancy Wheeler, Mike's older sister Nancy Wheeler?!"

"Yes Steve, that Nancy Wheeler!" Robin shouted back in exasperation. "Do you know another badass woman named Nancy Wheeler?!"

Steve's mouth flailed open and shut as he tried to come up with a response.

Robin softened as she took notice of how confused and hurt Steve was. "I never meant to hurt you, Stevie. That's why I'm telling you. I'm just a girl whose in love with another girl who happens to be your ex. That's all."

"That's all?" Steve repeated sarcastically, venom dripping off every word. "Robin, you know what she did to me. You know how much she hurt me and how devastated I was. Hell, you were the one to comfort me when I would get down on myself about our relationship and talked me out of calling her like the drunken idiot we both know I can be! Was that all just some ploy to keep me from her so you could have her all to yourself?!"

Robin narrowed her eyes at her friend, ignoring the tears that were beginning to gather due to Steve's accusation. "No, Steve, it's nothing like that. I fell for Nancy because of who she is, not because it would hurt you. That's the whole reason I wanted to talk to you. I didn't want to keep this from you any longer because I knew you would react like this!"

"Like what?!"

"Like this! Accusing me of shit you know I would never do! You're my best friend, Steve James Harrington, and I would never do anything that would jeopardize our friendship!"

"Well you did, Robin! Out of all the girls in Hawkins to date, you chose Nancy!"

"You know that I have to be careful and that I actually don't have many options in this small, homophobic, bumfuck of a town," Robin growled, practically nose to nose with Steve.

"Well it's not my fault that it's unnatural, now is it?"

Both of them froze in place as soon as the question dropped from his lips, Robin heartbroken and in disbelief while Steve was horrified and shocked.

"Rob, I—"

"Fuck you, Steve," she spat, ripping her Family Video vest off her person and slamming it onto the counter, enjoying how it made Steve flinch.

Steve faltered as he reached out for Robin, the devastation and resignation in her eyes breaking his heart more than Nancy ever did.

"You are the one person I trusted," Robin said, swallowing past the lump in her throat. "I never thought in a million years that you of all people would be the one I trusted with that part of myself, because you were an absolute douchebag in high school. But you managed to get me to open up to you and despite all of my instincts telling me not to, I did. I trusted you because you weren't King Steve anymore, but clearly I was wrong. You haven't changed, and you never will."

With that, Robin rushed past Steve and out the door. She ran straight to Steve's car, grabbed her bike out of the trunk, and pedaled as hard and as fast as she could, ignoring Steve's desperate calls for her to come back. She paid no attention to the tears streaming down her face. There was only one thing on her mind.

She needed to get to Nancy.

~~~

Nancy wasn't sure how much time had passed since Robin had broken down in her arms. All she knew was that something had to have gone terribly wrong between Robin and Steve for her girlfriend to be so inconsolable and so obviously crushed.

"I've got you Robin, I promise. I'm here for you, whatever you need," Nancy vowed quietly so as not to further overwhelm her girlfriend.

"Thank you," Robin replied, her voice even raspier than normal.

"There's no need to thank me," the journalist said, smiling down at the the younger teen.

"I got snot all over your favorite shirt," Robin mumbled, a small grin appearing as Nancy chuckled.

"You're more important than a shirt, Robin."

"Mmhmm," she agreed through a yawn, snuggling closer to Nancy.

Nancy simply held her girlfriend tighter, running a hand through Robin's hair to help soothe her to sleep. "I love you, Robin."

"Love you too, Nance," she said, looking at the curly-haired brunette with half-lidded eyes.

"I'll be here when you wake," Nancy assured her, absolutely melting when Robin promptly closed her eyes and dozed off within minutes.

While she wasn't sure about the specifics of what went down between the two friends, she was sure about one thing.

Steve Harrington was a dead man.

[heartbreak-sandwich]

Ronance blurb below the cut 💕 I hope you love them as much as I do. Sneak peek:

Robin was talking about a swing she had as a kid – now she’s talking about a video game she played at the arcade that she can’t remember the name of – and that reminded her of a milkshake she tried once that had a similar name – and now she’s talking about her old manager at Scoops Ahoy who was a total jackass. She’s talking a million miles per second, and Nancy is nodding along…but then Nancy looks at her – really looks at her – and she has an epiphany.

She loves her.

Robin is still talking, and Nancy’s eyes have glossed over, fixating on Robin’s lightly mascara’d lashes, her cherry-stained lips, her blonde chin length hair with bits of sunshine scattered in the highlights.

Nancy is in love with her.

She has always known this deep inside her chest, somewhere underneath all the guilt and the piles of memories stuffed away in the catacombs of her ribcage where the light could never reach them. She pushed her feelings for Robin down there, too, not knowing if she ever really deserved to be happy. But today, she couldn’t help but let the magic creep into her thoughts.

What if it works?

Robin is still talking, and Nancy realizes she loves that, too. She is enamored with Robin for being herself even though she knows Robin could never be anything else if she tried. Nancy aches for her own authenticity, and Robin’s being so effortless captivates her. She hasn’t realized she has stopped nodding along with Robin’s ramblings until she hears her name.

“Nancy? Sorry. Did I lose you? I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” Robin sighs apologetically and averts her eyes as Nancy snaps out of her dreamlike state.

“No, no, I’m listening. Sorry, I was just thinking…about what you were saying,” Nancy lied terribly.

“No offense, but you’re the worst liar I’ve ever known.” Robin chuckles to herself as she focuses her attention back on the stack of videos she’s filing away on the shelves and notices Nancy is unusually quiet all of a sudden. “You okay?” Robin looks at Nancy, her eyebrows raised in concern.

There they are again, those sky blue eyes, fixed on Nancy, and her stomach is suddenly full of a thousand butterflies. Nancy opens her mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. Robin files the last few tapes on the shelf in front of her and closes the gap between them, resting a gentle hand on Nancy’s shoulder. “Nance?”

Nancy shakes her head to make the clouds dissipate. She wants to say this right. She looks at Robin again, into her eyes, studies her face, and stands square in front of her, mustering all of the courage she can. She never thought the most important speech of her life would be given here in the New Releases aisle of Family Video, standing in front of her best friend on a sunny Tuesday afternoon with too many memories flashing through her mind and not enough words in the English dictionary to accurately describe how she feels.

“Robin,” she starts. “You know how you sometimes say that things about you are defects?”

“Yeah. Most of the things about me tend to be,” Robin scoffs, half smiling.

“They’re not,” Nancy says matter of factly.

“What?” Robin is taken aback. This isn’t their usual conversational map.

“They’re not defects,” Nancy repeats. “They’re…assets.” Nancy grips both of Robin's shoulders firmly as she locks eyes with her.

It's now or never.

Robin notices the tears gathering in Nancy’s eyes as she speaks passionately and deliberately. “I have never known anyone else who cares like you…who thinks like you…who loves like you do. Robin, you are so special in every way, and nothing about you is wrong. It never has been.” Robin’s stomach does a backflip at Nancy’s words, and her mouth feels like desert sand as she searches for something to say.

“Nancy, I –”

“No. I’m not done,” Nancy interrupts. “You see me, Robin. You see me like no one else ever has. I’m not lost when I’m with you, and you make me feel heard, and right, and…validated. I feel real when we’re together, like my feet are on solid ground for the first time in my life.” Robin’s hands are trembling, clutching her vest as a tear falls from Nancy’s eye. “Robin?”

“Yeah?”

“You are everything I didn’t know I needed, and I can’t live another second without you knowing that I –”

“Me, too.” Robin interrupts Nancy’s soliloquy, cupping her face and swiping away her single tear with her thumb. Robin smiles so wide her cheeks start to ache, but she doesn’t care because Nancy is holding her closer now, their noses almost touching.

Nancy echoes her smile as they lean in closer, their lips brushing together before they connect in the sweetest first kiss either of them had ever shared. It is slow, syrupy, the texture of honey pouring into a piping hot cup of tea, and they melt into each other for a moment. Their lips part, eyes opening slowly, each of them catching their breath before Nancy speaks again.

“I love you,” she says simply, another tear cascading down her cheek.

“Today and every day,” Robin replies, her smile plastered on her face. She swipes away Nancy’s tear again as both of them let out a sigh and a half giggle, relieved that the feeling was mutual. They’re still holding each other close when they hear a voice from the front counter.

“And what do we have here?” Steve had returned from his break to see the tail end of their interaction, and the blush in his cheeks confirms that he had witnessed more than just the last ten seconds. Nancy and Robin looked at each other for less than a second before bursting into a fit of laughter.

And the rest is history. 💕taglist: @broodpuff

[morganski-19]

With a Comma After Dearest Part 1

A Ronance Note Passing Au

Robin’s tired. So goddamn tired. Like the soul was physically sucked out of her body and all that was left was this mess of a blob that she had to carry around all day tired. She hates it. Hates the feeling of just getting through the day just to go home and try to sleep, but never succeeds. 

It hasn’t been this bad in a while. Not since July. But at least then she had more of an excuse. Then she was taken by Russians and tortured, heard Steve’s screams through the long hallway of the bunker. Now, what does she have to say? She willingly jumped into an alternate dimension portal to save her friend and willingly went back again to kill an evil wizard. She didn’t see the visions her friends did, didn’t watch her friends almost die. No, she came out unscathed, just mild horrors to be seen. The sleepless night shouldn’t be happening. 

But they are. Have been ever since that first night after spring break. Waking in a cold sweat, immediately calling her friends to know that they were ok. Resigning herself to only getting the amount of sleep she did or sneaking out her window to go to Steve’s. That way when one of them had a nightmare, they might actually be able to sleep after that. She can’t rely on him as much as she wants, especially if she wants him to have any semblance of a life. But she just can’t help it. 

He’s never said anything about it, always willing to drop anything to come make sure she was ok. Not like he was doing anything either, just laying alone in that giant house of his. But now that Eddie’s been released from the hospital, they’ve been spending more time together, Steve helping him through the nightmares. And she sees the way they look at each other, she knows that something’s going to happen between them too, even if they can’t see it yet. 

So she has to learn how to do things on her own sometimes. She can still rely on him if she needs it, he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He just might need some space and nights alone, meaning that Robin would have to start being alone. If only that thought alone didn’t terrify her.

She walks into the bathroom and is met with the giant bags under her eyes. Barely having the energy to even get dressed in the morning, it’s not like she has the energy to cover them up. Her mom asks her questions, and her dad gets worried. All she could tell them were lies, that it was just nerves about some test or college applications, and that’s why she couldn’t sleep. She splashes some cold water on her face, trying anything to keep her awake for three more periods. 

Slowly she makes her way to her next class and prays that she won’t fall asleep.

. . . 

Nancy is walking to her next class when she spots Robin. Hunched over, clutching books close to her chest, and shuffling into the classroom. She looks like she hasn’t gotten any sleep at all, Nancy knows the feelings. It’s not like she’s been able to sleep that well the last few weeks. She’s just had four years of practice to make sure no one knew it was happening. It would go away soon, she knows. Slowly compartmentalizing in her mind until the memories fade away, only to haunt her again when she doesn’t want them to. 

But Robin, she’s still new to this. Sure there was the summer, but that was only once. It took Nancy three times around to be able to train her mind to forget the images that plagued her mind. And even then it wasn’t perfect. 

There were always people that Nancy could rely on though. Steve and Jonathan when she was dating them, and sometimes even Mike when they both needed someone to talk to. Someone was always there to help her fall back asleep, assure her that she was safe, and that they were okay. 

Does Robin have anyone to do that? Nancy assumes she has Steve, but it’s not like they live that close. And they’re not dating, so it’s not like they would spend that many nights together. She can’t imagine what Robin would do, climb out her window and bike all the way to Steve’s, or call him and he then drive over to her. Time spent in panic when someone could already be there to calm her down. 

Nancy wants to be there for Robin. They live a lot closer and could have sleepovers on nights when one of them just needed someone to help get them through the night. But she hasn’t had time. 

Ever since the “earthquake” the school paper has had endless stories. Student testimonials and memorials. News about the repairs and charity drives. A constant reminder of what they didn’t stop quite in time. 

Because of that, Nancy hasn’t had time to think about herself, let alone someone else. The stories are slowing down and life is returning to normal. Meaning that she should be too, or at least trying to. That way she could focus on her future and get through the rest of the year. Finally leave Hawkins behind and start the next part of her life, away from danger. 

After the bell rings, Nancy sees Robin again, half asleep wandering through the halls. She wants to go up to her, ask her if she’s alright. If maybe she wants to come over after school and take a nap knowing that someone is there to protect her. It’s what Nancy would want Robin to do, so why can’t she do it herself? 

Maybe it’s because she and Robin don’t know each other that well. They hung out a lot during spring break, but how much can you really learn about a person while saving the world? That doesn’t stop her from wanting to get to know her more. Somewhere along the line, she and Robin bonded. Maybe Nancy could have a best friend again, she just has to take the first step. 

Robin stops, exchanging a book in her locker before walking through the hall again. Nancy tries to speed up and catch her, but she misses her in seconds. Looking at the locker at her right, she gets an idea. Ripping out a page of her notebook, she writes a note and pushes it through the slits of the locker, hoping that Robin responds. 

. . . 

Robin,

Hey, I just wanted to check up on you. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to hang out that much, I’ve been really busy with the newspaper. We have so many stories to write about the “earthquake” that I’ve been working overtime just to get all of them edited. Really it’s so annoying, especially since we know what happened. I just want to go back to writing stories about the mystery meat, as much as it pains me to say that. 

But anyway. I really did just want to check up on you. Our schedules don’t really align that much but when I pass you in those halls, you look so alone. Not to say that you don’t have friends or anything. But I know that feeling of just wanting to isolate yourself after what happens, and I know you have Steve to help deal with all of this but, I guess I just wanted to make sure that you knew you could talk to me too. 

I’ll leave my number on the bottom in case you don’t have it. Please feel free to call me anytime, really. I want to be there for you. 

From,

Nancy

(P.S., my locker number is A350 if you want to respond. No pressure though!)

Robin reads the letter that fell out of her locker again, shocked that it isn’t some prank. The first thought that crossed her mind was that it was some jock who just wanted to poke fun at the band geek who looked like shit. Not like it’s unheard of.

However, when she opened the letter and read it, she smiled instead of balling it up and throwing it away. It’s the first time she’s heard from Nancy in weeks. Ever since school started up again, Robin would see her running through the halls from class to class, and then right to the newspaper room during lunch and after school. She thought that Nancy had forgotten about her, but she was wrong. 

The last bell rings for the day and Robin curses under her breath, stuffing her bag full of books before booking it to the parking lot, Steve waiting for her like always. 

“No offense, but you look like shit,” he says as she slides into the passenger seat. 

“How anyone fell for your charm, I will never know.”

He pulls out of the parking lot. “Eh, after school doesn’t really work all that much anymore. But uh- seriously. Have you been sleeping?”

Robin yawns. “I’m fine.”

“That’s not what I asked. You look like you haven’t slept in weeks. I’m worried about you, you haven’t called that much and you can barely walk to the car when I pick you up. I just- I just want you to know that I’m still here, if you need to talk about it, that’s all.”

“I know. I just didn’t want you to come over as much and I can’t keep biking to your place in the middle of the night.”

Steve turns, taking the longer way to her house as he does every day so they can talk more. “Then call me, we can just fall asleep on the phone like we used to.”

“Aren’t you a little preoccupied now,” She switches the conversation, getting the spotlight off of her. 

“The hell does that mean?”

“I mean that you and Eddie have been spending a lot of nights together.”

He pauses, not immediately biting back. “He’s been having a tough time with everything ok, that’s it.”

Robin hums disbelievingly. “Uh huh, sure. Let me know when that changes.” 

She digs through her backpack to find her water bottle and stumbles upon the note Nancy left in her locker. If she had another five minutes, she would have responded. Pulling it out, she looks at it, reading through the words again. 

“What’s that?” Steve asks as he turns down her street.  

“Nancy left me a note in my locker, checking in on me.” 

He parks in front of her house. “That’s nice. You going to respond?”

“I think so. It’d be nice to have someone else to talk about all of this, you know.”

“Yeah I know,” he nods. “Call me, ok. Don’t just think you have to go through this alone. No matter what, you still have me, ok.”

Robin nods. “Yeah, I know. And I will. Promise.”

When she gets to her room, she basically falls on her bed, debating if she should take a nap. But it might be the only sleep she gets tonight, so it’d be best to do it later. Looking at the letter in her hand again, she decides to write a response. 

. . . 

Dear Nancy,

How thoughtful of you to check up on little ole me. I should be the one checking up on you. So how dare you getting to it first. 

In all seriousness though, I’ve been ok, I guess. I haven’t really been sleeping, which is why I look like complete shit all the time. But it’ll go away soon. I hope at least. Steve has been spending a lot of time helping Eddie out, so I haven’t been able to lean on him as much as I did after the summer. It’s been kind of weird going through this sort of alone. But I guess I’m not anymore, 'cause I have you. 

I figured you were busy with the newspaper. I would see you running through the halls right past me, not even saying a quick hello. I don’t blame you for missing me, not like I was trying to stand out anyway. We should hang out, sometimes. If you have time, that is. I don’t really have a lot of friends, especially those who I can talk to about this. What I’m trying to say is that it would be nice, I think. 

So uh, here’s my number in case you don’t have it. We’re the only Buckley’s in town though so if you need to, we’re in the book. 

Your friend,

Robin

(P.S. Also, thought it would be funny to greet and sign these letters as they would back then. You know, for laughs and shit.)

(P.P.S I know you already have my locker number, but it’s B102 if you forgot)

Nancy smiles as she reads the letter, immediately pulling out a piece of paper and writing a response. 

I will start a tag list if anyone is interested. This will be multiple parts, I'm thinking somewhere between 5-10.

[ronance4life42]

How do you think Mike would react to Ronance?

hi @astreinomane! Thanks for the ask :)

I think that Mike would be a little…not shocked but perhaps surprised at first, but he’d be supportive. Even though he likes to be like “eww my sibling swapping spit with someone else image please erase yourself from my mind!” He’d quite like this arrangement because:

Jancy no longer being a thing means it’s not complicated for him to date will :)

gay rights! He likes that his sister is queer too, it makes him feel less alone and more comfortable.

he always hated Nancy dating Steve for a lot of reasons, but it would be especially weird now because Steve is the dad of the group. He could also tease Steve about it I think he’d find the whole Robin- rejecting-Steve-for-Nancy thing hilarious.

I think Mike thinks Robin is cool and kinda looks up to her. Like a cool older sister. He could annoy Nancy by claiming he liked his other older sister more.

At the end of the day he likes to see his sister happy and it’s clear she’s really happy with Robin.

Anyways I hope that makes sense. Have a good day<3

[jus-let-me-read]

I can imagine like Ronance and Steddie on a double date (they're only out to each other), and the kids find out because they follow them on said date with a different idea in mind. But this definitely takes place when the kids are younger and not like 16. Like for example, it's around the holidays and Steve makes up an excuse on why he can't babysit the kids or drive them anywhere. He tells Dustin he has to buy presents which then prompts Dustin to tell the rest of the gang. Obviously, that then leads to the kids wanting to know what Steve will get them for the holidays. They don't finalize that they'll follow them around until Mike finds out his sister is also going out to the same mall at the same time.

Obviously there's some protests of like "are we actually about to spend a part of our break following a couple of teenagers around the mall, just to find out our present?" But eventually, somehow, they all end up roped up into it with some believing Steve and Nancy will actually just be buying presents, whilst the latter half believes the two are on a date and are trying to light an old spark. Then they see that Eddie and Robin joined them and then they actually just believe it's presents shopping.

They follow them around for a while so confused on why they don't immeaditely start shopping. Some of the gang leave whilst the fruity four are at a local cafe just eating and talking. Mike doesn't leave because he's so sure his sister won't get him a present this year for whatever reason. Will is staying because he tends to just flock to whatever group has the most people he's comfortable with. Dustin refuses to leave because he's confident in finding out what Steve will get him for Christmas. It's a bit of a slow start and the three aren't really catching onto the fact it's a date. In fact, Will is the least interested over the whole thing until a little later on for obvious reasons.

Nancy is sitting next to Robin and she occasionally just whispers in Robin's ear, or the other way around, and the latter will always have this cute, but giddy reaction. They're extra happy around each other because it's their first proper date out in the open. Since the kids aren't close enough to hear they have to go based off of actions alone, and sometimes that isn't much when they aren't acting extremely obvious. Like none of them are full on cuddling, leaning on each other 24/7. The most telling thing ends up being Nancy casually tucking a strand of hair behind Robin's ear, or Robin rambling so much as Nancy just looks at her absolutely lovesick. Where even though they are trying to hide the fact they're dating to the general public they can't exactly hide how much they care for the other.

I imagine that Mike after witnessing his elder sister's two relationships, he kinda picks up on how she acts in that situation, or atleast how she acts around people she likes. Then he sees her acting all flirty or playful in a sense with Robin and he's like "what the fuck??" At first, like momentarily, he assumes it's some friendship thing, or possibly a one-sided crush, but then Robin just stares at Nancy like she put the stars in the sky. Then all the puzzle pieces click for Mike and it's just so many emotions and thoughts. One thought is wondering why his own sister didn't tell him something that's like obviously important to her. Whereas the latter thought is busy processing the fact he essentially stalked his sister as she went on a date.

Steve and Eddie are a lot less obvious than Robin and Nancy during this whole exchange. Yet, despite that, it's obvious they do have some chemistry. And the way they bounce off each other or complement each other's mannerisms is palpable. Steve will say something sarcastic and Eddie would be able to respond with, almost immeaditely, something witty to keep the banter going. Everytime they latch onto a random subject, Robin and Nancy go quiet and let them have their moment. Sometimes Steve will act like he doesn't care that much about what Eddie has to say, but his facial expression and how he acts around him shows different.

Obviously, the first person to notice the very possibility of Steve and Eddie is Dustin. Dustin knows, to some extent, how Steve acts when he's dating somebody, since Steve had given him dating advice. As soon as Dustin notices this, he's the first one to take the risk, and run to a different hiding spot just to find out more. The only reason why he doesn't get found out is because of Mike and Will making sure he doesn't make them get caught. They're now able to hear some of the conversation if the background noise of the mall isn't loud enough, which isn't often but it's still something.

Most of the stuff they talk about is random stuff happening at school, with the occasional mention of some random classmates that the kids don't know exist. What does key the rest of them into the conversation is Robin mentioning the word date, and saying how she's glad they finally had the chance to go out and enjoy life like any other couple. To this Robin discreetly and briefly holds Nancy's hand, whilst Steve and Eddie glance at each other. As if on cue, with perfect timing, the three kids all looked at each other each with varying facial expressions. Mike looked slightly shocked, Dustin was happy, and Will looked like as soon as he was left by himself he'd start crying.

Will is the most affected by this since he was so used to bubbling it up inside. There was also a significant lack of being proud of this aspect about himself. He had gotten bullied by people who pinned point him as gay, simply because he wasn't exactly 'normal' or 'acted normal.' The sudden realization and confirmation of sorts that Eddie and Steve were a couple, as well as Nancy and Robin filled him with so much hope. He felt validated and truly felt like it was okay for feeling the way he does. It gave him hope that someday, somehow, he could have something like that. Just the knowledge that he is not the only gay kid in Hawkins was enough to make him push back tears.

Nancy and Robin knew they were being tailed rather later into the double date. What clued Steve in, was Nancy and Robin both whispering about it and tilting their head to what's behind them. Steve ends up spotting a bit of Dustin's hair behind a plant, and elbows Eddie who follows what he's getting at. The four end up talking in a lower voice about what they should do and how the three even found out. It didn't take them long to connect some dots and the four made the willing choice to act naturally. A couple of minutes later from this, the three kids leave, definitely not wanting to fifth wheel a double date. None of them noticed that they were caught but it did make for a heck of a conversation between Steve and Dustin as well as, Mike and Nancy.

[carriedawatermelon]

Ronance kinktober ficlet, the second. Used a random kink generator and couldn’t not do role play for the DND show, so here’s some college Ronance, in which Nancy finds that Robin’s DND swagger really fucking does it for her. As always, soft filth only for these two.

Thanks for being so kind about the last one, y’all. I’m having fun with these and it makes me happy that maybe you are, too.

Prompt: Role Play/AU

She’s supposed to be reading. She has an essay due in a week and a half that’s worth a third of her grade, and she needs to finish her outline by Tuesday, which means she needs to finish The Bluest Eye this weekend. It’s not long, and it’s not tedious, and Nancy actually gives a shit about this paper and this professor. 

She’s supposed to be reading. 

She’s not reading. 

She’s not reading because she is, somehow, at the age of 22 and years out of her parents’ house, back in their basement watching her little brother and his friends play Dungeons & Dragons. More accurately, actually, she’s watching Robin and her little brother and his friends play Dungeons & Dragons. 

That, of course, is the problem. Because Nancy is in love with Robin, and she knows this about herself, the same way she knows that Robin can turn anything into something Nancy cares about. Scallop farming? Sure, yep. The minutiae of the latest debate on the translation of a passage of The Iliad? Absolutely. The evolution of lighting in horror movies? Fascinating. Never mind that Nancy doesn’t watch horror or keep up with Homer or that scallops make her throat swell.

It’s the Robin effect, and Nancy’s three years into it with no intention of stopping. Almost four years if you count the denial and pining, which Nancy doesn’t for the sake of anniversaries but does, mostly, for considering how long Robin has had Nancy’s heart and brain and everything else, really.

Nancy should’ve known better, is the point. Nancy should’ve known better than to come down here with her book like she could be in the same room as Robin doing something that required her to talk and think and interact with other people and not immediately become distracted. This isn’t the two of them on Robin’s couch working together. (Not that that doesn’t sometimes end with Nancy getting distracted.) This is Nancy trying to work while Robin impresses a table of disgruntled teenage boys and makes Eddie laugh and plots to defeat some kind of tentacled monster with a scheme involving a slingshot (Lucas is thrilled) and a lyre.

This is Robin the Bard, apparently, and Nancy is deeply, embarrassingly, into it. 

Robin’s spot at the table means Nancy can see the profile of her face perfectly, but that Robin can’t really see her unless she turns at an awkward angle. She does a few times, just to smile at Nancy or, once, to wink like a massive nerd, and god help her, that did it for Nancy, too, her stomach flipping as she pretended to go back to reading for about ten seconds. It’s impossible, though, Nancy’s eyes always finding their way back to the table, back to Robin. 

She just got a haircut, the shag now above her ears, and she keeps running her hand through it like she can’t quite believe there’s not more. It looks good, looks amazing, which is exactly what Nancy told her before using it to guide Robin’s head between her legs before she could even make it past the entryway to Nancy’s place. The hair’s not helping things, anyway. Nor is the way she sits, legs spread as she strategizes intensely, her knee and part of her thigh exposed by her ripped black jeans. Nancy can’t look away, not that it would help if she did, because she’d be left with Robin’s voice and laugh and then she’d look again, and, well, it’s a vicious cycle, really. 

Nancy knows Robin plays at school sometimes; the queer art kids have a running game she dips into on occasion, but Nancy’s never seen it before. She knows now she’ll have to go, because she wants to see this again. Robin’s invested, her cadence shifted to match her character. She talks and jokes and helps plan but she does this thing where she makes space for the others when it seems like someone has been quiet for too long. 

She does it for Will, especially, leaves these intentional gaps for him to fill with suggestions or thoughts, makes sure he doesn’t sink into the background. Eddie’s good at that, too, but he’s so much, almost all of the time, a force, and Robin isn’t anything less but her energy feels less like a hurdle to clear and more like a lift, like cupped hands at the start of a climb. It floods Nancy with fondness and with admiration and with the desire to do things she absolutely cannot do right now. 

They break, eventually, Nancy having made about three paragraphs’ worth of progress, and Robin comes to kiss her quickly, both of them flipping off Mike as he makes a disgusted noise, before running to the bathroom and the snack supply upstairs with the rest of the boys. She turns to her book, desperate, but the cushion next to hers sinks and a tattooed arm reaches across her shoulder. Nancy sighs and slots her bookmark into place.

Eddie’s grin is shit-eating in the extreme when she turns to him, and she knows she’s caught but she still has some dignity, at least when it comes to people who aren’t Robin, so she raises her eyebrow expectantly and asks, “Can I help you?”

“I think you’re the one that needs some help, Wheeler.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His eyes flash, delighted. “Oh, you definitely do. You’ve turned exactly one page in the last hour. And you smile every time Robin says anything. It’s disgusting. It’s amazing. I’m obsessed.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be paying attention to the game?” She manages to sound bored and fights the urge to tuck her hair, a tell he’ll sink his teeth into. 

He waves her off. “I’m paying plenty of attention to the game. Everyone’s having a great time. Which you know, because you’ve been drooling over the party bard’s every fuckin’ word. Got a thing for musicians, Wheeler? Thinking about playing her lyre?”

“Classy,” she says, and he looks like she’s given him a present. “Oh, shut up.”

He cackles, removing his hand from around her to clap loudly. “Oh, I definitely won’t. I’m gonna get her to make you play next time.”

The her in question nearly stumbles from the top of the stairs, grabbing the railing with one hand as she tries to balance a plate of cookies and a can of Coke, a bag of chips dangling from her mouth. It’s a disaster waiting to happen, but before Nancy can intervene, Lucas has plucked the soda from the crook of her arm. Whatever she says, or tries to say, through the cargo in her mouth makes him laugh. 

Eddie pokes her bicep. “Incredible.”

“This is nothing new.” She tries changing tack, bored tone still in place. It’s not new. He knows her. He knows them. 

“No,” he concedes, leaning closer to keep their conversation from drifting. “But I’ve never gotten to see it like this. Does she know she has super powers? Turning the Nancy Wheeler into mush?”

“She doesn’t,” Nancy says, fondness taking over. “Even though I’ve told her.” 

“Disgusting,” he repeats, fondness in his own voice. “Try not to fall out when your girl kills the big bad.” 

And then he’s up and headed back to the table, hands clapping and rubbing together eagerly. “And we’re back.”

Nancy’s girl does kill the big bad. Her plan works, and the boys cheer, each standing to receive some applause for their role in the fight. Eddie bows in concession and then suddenly, they’re cleaning up, and Nancy doesn’t even know how long she’s been sitting there, but she hadn’t even bothered to open the book back up for the last part of the session. 

Robin makes her way over, grinning big, and falls down against the opposite arm of the sofa, her feet tangling with Nancy's where they’re tucked up beside her. Sighing, she throws an arm over her head and says wearily, “Hard work defeating an ancient eldritch being. I might need a nap.”

“Very impressive.” It’s affectionate and teasing and Nancy’s grip on Robin’s ankle is equally soft, thumb pressing in just slightly. “I especially liked the part where you danced at him.”

“Were you watching?!” She’s propped up now, blue eyes big and attentive.

“I might have been.” 

“She was!” Eddie calls, like an asshole, and Nancy feels her cheeks go red.

“It was gross. She smiled, like, the whole time.” Mike’s got his patented scowl on, but it’s the mostly kidding version. “Weren’t you supposed to be reading?” He rolls his eyes at her as he moves toward the stairs. 

“You’re just jealous that your sister bags hotter girls than you. Maybe if you smiled every once in a while you’d get a date.” Dustin calls before looking guiltily at the couch, eyes moving between Nancy and Robin. “Sorry?”

“You’re just telling the truth,” Nancy says, and Mike’s scowl deepens while the others laugh, loud footsteps carrying them upstairs. 

“Ladies,” Eddie says, hefting his backpack onto his shoulder. “Have a lovely evening.”

“Don’t be a pervert,” Nancy says, at the same time Robin says, “Thanks.”

He laughs loudly and tips an imaginary hat before he leaves. 

Robin’s biting her lip now, obviously delighted, and Nancy rolls her eyes even as she crawls across the sofa and braces herself against the arm, looking down at Robin’s smile. 

“Might have been watching, huh?”

“A little.”

“A little,” Robin repeats, looking smug, which Nancy finds unbearably attractive. 

“You’re very cute,” she says, lifting a hand to tuck some of Robin’s hair behind her ear and trace over her nose. “My bard.”

Nancy sighs into the kiss, Robin’s hand splaying wide over the small of her back while the other wraps around her forearm. 

“Adding ‘DND does it for Nancy Wheeler’ to my list of ‘Things I Never Would Have Guessed.’”

“More like Robin Buckley does it for Nancy Wheeler.”

“Also on the list,” Robin says proudly, scratching lightly at Nancy’s back in affection. 

“Are you interested in further evidence?” The question comes with a kiss to Robin’s jaw, and Nancy can feel her nod her head, the dork. 

“Always. Um, super important actually, because what if it’s on the list and not true, you know? Like, it needs to be accurate, and-“

Nancy kisses her jaw again, takes her earlobe into her mouth and sucks gently, and Robin’s hips buck just the way she knew they would, which makes it no less rewarding. Her hands move to clutch at Nancy’s hips, a whimper escaping as Nancy kisses and licks at her throat. 

“Fuck,” she breathes out, and Nancy smiles, nips gently at the skin above the collar of her t-shirt before slipping a hand underneath it. 

“Yeah, baby? Feel good?”

“Yes.” She arches into the teasing route Nancy’s taking with her fingers. “So good.”

“Good,” Nancy murmurs, palming her over her sports bra before pushing it up, rocking her hips forward at the feeling of Robin’s nipple pebbled in her hand, again at the noise she makes when Nancy takes it between her fingers. 

“Nancy,” Robin gasps, and that’s all Nancy can take, her self-control worn to nothing after god knows how long sitting and watching her girlfriend in this fucking basement. She tugs roughly, the way that makes Robin lose it, and then pulls away, breath heavy as she sits back on Robin’s legs. 

“Sit up,” she says with force, and Robin does, immediately, going exactly where Nancy puts her, which is against the back of the sofa, without any kind of fight. 

When Nancy settles, straddling her lap, she takes Robin’s hands and puts them just under her shirt, pressing until Robin gets the hint: stay. She does, fingers flexing hot against her skin as Nancy works her way back under her shirt and bra, pulling and grasping at her eagerly, tongue licking at the back of Robin’s teeth. 

When she shoves her shirt up, bending to take a nipple into her mouth and suck, one of Robin’s hands flies to the back of her head as she cries out. Nancy pulls away for long enough to kiss her, whisper, “Shh, baby. Be quiet so I can make you come, okay?” 

Robin nods, almost pained, biting her lip, and Nancy’s chest burns, hot with want and affection. “So good for me.” She knows what she’s doing, knows she’s made it that much harder for Robin to stay quiet with those words. She doesn’t care, loves the way Robin shakes with want, the little noise that escapes as Nancy lets her smile be sharp. 

Her own hips roll when she takes Robin’s nipple back into her mouth, teeth grazing lightly, and Robin bucks into her. She sucks a mark into the soft skin under her collarbone, fills herself on greedy, inelegant touches across her tits and stomach, her mouth and hands roaming and taking, lingering where Robin makes a pretty noise in the back of her throat or grips hard at Nancy’s waist. 

“Nancy, Nancy, Nancy,” she chants eventually, desperately. “Please. Please.”

Nancy pushes herself back, stares at Robin. Her head’s thrown back, chest heaving, and when she whines and meets Nancy’s eyes, her pupils are blown, dark pools in blue. Nancy wants to take her, wants to keep her, and she slides to her knees easily, settling between Robin’s spread legs and moving immediately to undo her button and fly, pressing kisses to the skin of her belly. 

Robin’s hips lift to assist as Nancy pulls her jeans down her thighs, past her knees and off of one foot with a kiss to her ankle because she hates feeling trapped. A hand plants itself in her hair, barely tugging, and Nancy smirks and kisses her calf, her knee, the insides of her thighs. 

“Nancy, please.”

She mouths over navy briefs, moans at the sharp sting of Robin’s desperate encouragement and the smell of her through the cotton. The briefs come down quickly, and Robin’s legs spread that much wider, and Nancy looks at her, at the sharp line of her jaw where her head’s tilted back, the red mark blooming on her chest, still visible where her shirt’s caught in her sports bra, a tangled mess made of want. Robin’s hand smooths through her hair, and then Nancy’s placing a kiss below her belly button, over the dark hair that covers her, to the crease of her thigh.

A whine escapes Robin, a plea, but Nancy’s already answering, licking into her and moaning at the taste, tongue dipping into wet heat and then coming up to lap at her clit. Robin tugs her t-shirt into her mouth, biting it to keep quiet, and Nancy brings two fingers up and presses into her, her own hips moving at the feeling of Robin tight around her. 

Fingers tighten in her hair, Robin’s hips rolling to meet her thrusts, and Nancy can’t help but slide the fingers of her free hand into her own jeans. It’s too tight, and she’s uncoordinated, but it’s enough for the moment, a temporary relief as she works at Robin, adding a third finger and flattening her tongue to let Robin rut the way she wants to. 

It doesn’t take long, blue eyes looking purposefully down at her as Nancy makes a show of sucking at Robin’s clit, and then Robin’s arching, eyes slamming shut, clenching around Nancy’s fingers. When the shaking stops, her hand tugging Nancy away, she goes reluctantly, pulling her own hand from her jeans as she stands. 

Robin’s breathing hard, pulling her shirt from her mouth and tugging Nancy into her lap, shoving her shirt up and the cups of Nancy’s bra down so that she can get a nipple in her mouth. Nancy undoes her pants, Robin’s hands busy on her ass and tits, and pushes them down with her underwear. Before she can even reach for her, Robin’s got two fingers curling into her perfectly, mouth still sucking eagerly. Her other hand rocks Nancy’s hip in suggestion, and Nancy takes it gratefully, too gone to start on her own. 

She rides Robin’s fingers slowly at first and then faster, hand holding her to her chest. “More,” she says, close to begging, and Robin gives her more, a third finger slipping in with ease as Nancy slides a hand down to circle her clit. It’s quick after that, Robin moving with purpose, and Nancy falls apart above her, hand moving to brace on her shoulder. 

Robin wraps her arms around her waist, pulls her close and kisses at her neck and jaw. “God, I love you,” she says into the air by her ear, making her shiver, and Nancy melts against her further. “So fucking hot. Jesus, Nance.”

“Evidence,” Nancy says, and Robin laughs, pulling them both back against the sofa. Nancy is inordinately glad she’d spread a blanket earlier, is absolutely going to have to sneak it in with her wash. 

“To be clear, is this evidence for the Robin pile or the DND pile?” Nancy swats at her shoulder. “I’m not above getting tights and pointy ears, Nance, honest to god, and how hard can a lyre actually be, like, I have my guitar, right, so-“

Nancy kisses her into silence.

“Maybe the ears,” she murmurs into the space between them a few minutes later, and basks in Robin’s laugh. 

[vmures]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I got tagged by the delightful @mirrorthoughts 💜💜💜 Thank you for the tag!

How many works do you have on ao3?

13 at the moment

What's your total ao3 word count?

218,148 words (mostly thanks to one very long fic, lol)

What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Teen Wolf and 9-1-1. I am noodling a few ideas for Stranger Things. I've also written Buffy the Vampire Slayer stuff, mostly crossovers in the past, but haven't gotten around to importing them to ao3. They can be found on Twisting the Hellmouth under the same user name as ao3 (vMures)

Top five fics by kudos:

Hanging On (You're All That's Left to Hold On To)

A Hallowed Pack

A Change of Luck

A Merry War

Finding Home

All Teen Wolf fics, mostly Steter with one Sterek fic in the mix. 😄

Do you respond to comments?

I certainly always try to.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm a happily ever after sort of writer generally, so none of my fics have very angsty endings. Just not the sort of thing I tend to write.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

They all have happy endings so far. Not sure I could pick which one has the happiest ending.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not usually, at least not on ao3. Worst comments I've gotten have been on fanfiction.net and I have been ignoring those for decades at this point. I think I don't get much hate on ao3 in large part because I don't allow anonymous comments on my work and people are less likely to leave hate comments when they have to do it with their official account. I've gotten a few odd comments, some weird nitpicky ones, and some demanding ones from time to time. I always try to respond politely to those, but sometimes get a bit snarky.

Do you write smut?

Not as of yet. But I may some day try my hand at it. No promises though. lol

Craziest crossover:

I once wrote a crossover between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, and X-Men (it can be found on Twisting the Hellmouth).

On ao3, my only crossover so far is a Teen Wolf/Harry Potter crossover: A Hallowed Pack

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone just asked if they could translate Midnight Rain into Russian, so that will be my first fic translated into another language.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really

All time favourite ship?

Cannot pick favorites for the life of me. In Teen Wolf, I love Steter, Sterek, Stetopher, Stargent, Steterek, Dargent, Detergent (Derek/Chris/Peter), and so many more combinations of my favorite characters. lol Stranger Things I read mostly Steddie and Ronance, but am open to quite a few other pairings.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Yep, my one unfinished WIP Buffy/Stargate crossover, The Road Not Taken. After a decade of agonizing over whether or not to mark it abandoned and give myself grace for not finishing it, I finally did so. Part of me still would love to finish it, but I lost the notes I had on it and doubt I'll ever find the desire to rebuild the story and figure out where I had wanted it to go.

What are your writing strengths?

I'm pretty good at writing natural sounding dialogue and proud of that fact.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I have been called a wordy bitch or told my writing is very dense. So that could be considered a weakness. Otherwise, I'd say writing action scenes and making sure the actions make sense and flow properly.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

As long as there's a translation somewhere, I don't mind. Sometimes it is effective to include.

First fandom you wrote in?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Favorite fic you've written?

Oh man, this is a particularly hard question. I love A Merry War a lot, but ultimately my absolute favorite so far is Hanging On (You're All That's Left to Hold On To). That fic is my baby. Took me two years to finish and I poured a lot of my heart and soul into it.

Once again I've hit the tagging portion of the tag game and drawn an absolute blank on who to tag. So consider yourself tagged if you want to play along! 💜💜💜

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Hi, it's me, Rueleigh, and I'm rambling again. Me and my multishipper thoughts are in a constant state of change. . .well, almost. I am dead set against certain ships and always will be. Like shipping adults and children or anyone with a child abusing racist. Anywhoooo. . . .

I hope it doesn't offend anyone if I say that the only way I could ship Ronance if Nancy's also dating Steve while Robin and Steve are in a queerplatonic relationship, of course. Mostly because I believe Steve and Robin are that codependent but also. . .I have bisexually panicked over both Steve and Robin in the past. I wouldn't be able to choose between them, honestly. Or in Nancy's case. . .pansexually panicked. I truly believe she fell for Steve when she saw him do something incredibly nice when he wasn't around his hyena friends, Tommy and Carol. For one brief moment, she caught a glimpse of his soul when he wasn't pretending to be someone else. Then, one day, she just looks at both Steve and Robin, laughing together, and she realizes she doesn't really care what gender someone is.

Plus, I hate putting Nancy in that situation where she has to choose. It's kind of fun to think about, though. Of my polyamorous Nancy ships, Stoncy is still in the lead. Although, I doubt the Duffers would do it so I could only enjoy as a headcanon, and I really want Stoncy to happen. Plus, I really want to see what Robin and Nancy would be like as friends, and I'm a firm Rovickie endgame believer. Talking to more nice Ronancers and less toxic ones really made me think, though.

I feel like I'm constantly changing my mind about ships, which I guess is a good thing. I hope I always try to keep an open mind, but the one thing that's never going to change is my hatred of Billy Hargrove and Vecna as well as Brenner, of course.

But yeah, for me to ship Ronance, Stancy also has to be a part of it. It wasn't originally supposed to be like that, but Steve ended up becoming a huge part of Nancy's life, then Robin became a huge part of Steve’s and then because of Steve, Robin became an important part of Nancy's. It wouldn't really be Robin and Steve sharing Nancy. They'd all share each other. Besides, if you're going to love Robin, you'd have love Steve too.

[eskawrites]

I love everything you have written for ronance soo much. I have just read for the millionth time all the thriving in the apocalypse series and the raise dead au and now I am catching up on Nancy pov fic.

You are the best ronance writer and one of my favourite writers period.

I just love the way you write nancy and robin and their dynamic so much.

I wish I could absorb your words into my brain and soul. I always look forward to anything you write!

Question do you think you'll ever going to write more for the raise dead au ? That au was so interesting and painful in the best way (all your stories are really and that's why I love them)

🫶🏼

ahhhh thank you so much this is so sweet <3 i'm so glad you're still enjoying it all even though some of those stories are getting to be a touch old at this point! wild

as for raise dead, i do have a bunch of ideas and notes and stuff still. i think about it sometimes and i would like to write more for that series. the problem is the ideas i did have weren't necessarily plot heavy, but they did kinda rely on an overarching plot/worldbuilding that i never fully figured out. like, what is vecna planning? how will they eventually defeat him, and how does robin coming back to life come into play? and it's one of those things where, even if i had a clear plot in my mind, i wouldn't necessarily want to write it, because getting too deep into a Story would detract from what Raise Dead originally was, y'know?

anyway, that was probably more of a dive into my Writer Thoughts than you asked for, so tl;dr there are some things i still want to figure out and post! i'm just not sure how it's all gonna work out. but for now, here's a lil excerpt from some notes that were written approximately a million years ago:

Now, sleep comes easily. Lying beside Robin, hand pressed over her heart, listening to her steady breaths fill the quiet of her bedroom, she can drift away peacefully. She just never gets to stay that way for long. If anything, she thinks it’s gotten worse. Ever since Robin came home from the hospital, it’s like her dreams have taken on a taunting edge. They play with her already fragile hope, poke at her fractured heart that still threatens to shatter every time she thinks of all the things that could’ve gone wrong. She watches Robin die. It happens with such visceral detail—the heat of the attic, Vecna’s rumbling voice in her head, his claws glistening with Robin’s blood—that she sometimes wonders if Henry himself is toying with her again, showing her the fears that have only amplified since the last time he had her in his clutches. They saved Robin. El brought her back. They did the impossible. And yet, on more nights than she cares to admit, she still sees her broken body, her pale face, her dull eyes. She watches as Vecna tears her apart until she’s unrecognizable—until there’s no way even El can bring her back.

[steviewashere]

Here's some Ronance from my current wip chapter (keep in mind that this fic—"We Share This Life"—is Steve-centric, but I couldn't resist my girls).

— — A warm hand settles itself between Robin's shoulder blades. She turns, nose to forehead with Nancy's crestfallen face. She slouches down enough to make eye contact.

"You're going to make yourself sick, Robbie," Nancy whispers. Her hand comes back up and tucks away a few wild strands of Robin's hair. "Come sit with me on the edge of the bed before you have a panic attack, alright?" She leads them to the edge of their mattress. Forces them both to sit down, bodies touching all the way down to the outsides of their feet.

Robin puts her face in her hands, elbows digging into the tops of her thighs.

Nancy pets down her back. "Maybe," she begins, "this is his way of telling you he's finally ready to leave Hawkins? Maybe this is him realizing something, y'know? It doesn't always have to be a bad thing."

"But why would he tell me now?"

For a few long moments, Nancy says nothing. Then, she takes a deep breath. "Steve's intentions are always set in the right. He—Sometimes he's not very articulate on how to portray them, though.

"When I lost Barb, he took me to a party and tried to just get me to act like a normal teenager. Which—" She chuckles, briefly. "I didn't feel like a normal teenager, not anymore. I mean, it's not everyday that you lose your best friend to some other thing and have to keep it a secret from everybody you know, even your best friend's family. But—" Nancy runs her palm up and down Robin's back in long strokes, hooking her chin on Robin's bony shoulder. "Steve barely knew what the fuck was going on at the time. And he was trying to help me, albeit poorly. And you've probably heard how the rest of that night went." She takes a deep breath.

Continues, "My point is, Steve's trying to tell you something. But he's not doing it well. Maybe...Maybe tell me more about what you guys talked about? I can help you, but you've got to take a breather and let me in." — —

If you want to read the rest of the fic while I finish up my Ronance section, you can find the link here!

The fic is rated mature for some of the material. Also, it's extremely Steve-centric, Ronance is not the main focus of my story, neither is Steddie, to be honest. More of their connection with Steve. It's slow going, but I promise more is on the way!