#i didnt proofread this at all because its 6 am so ignore typos and shit im still proud of this

[the-lark-ascending69]

Scoops Ahoy Ronance AU?

Ooh I like this 👀

First off I want to say that one of the things that attracted me to ronance when I first watched s4 was the fact that Nancy seemed to be so annoyed with her, lmao. Idk what is it about it but I love it when they can't stand each other at first. That's why I feel like a good ronance story begins with Nancy wanting Robin to stfu.

Now, unlike Steve, who was mildly annoyed but didn't pay her much attention at Scoops Ahoy, I think Nancy would be fuming whenever Robin tried to pull any snarky shit with her. I don't think she'd outright make a board to count how much Nancy sucks like she did Steve, firstly because Nancy doesn't have the same cringe material that Steve does, and secondly, I don't think Robin would act like that with a girl. I just think she's nicer to girls. Still, she's still in her S3 mode, porcupine energy, pretends to not care and be above it all while still pretty much not liking her coworker.

I think she'd find it bitterly funny and really unfair that Nancy doesn't seem to know they even went to the same school. Excuse her, she was Barb's friend first, Wheeler. Show some respect. But she doesn't see the point in telling her because she doesn't care about it, anyway. She just has this aloof, standoffish attitude with Nancy all the time. Rather than making fun of her, she's ignoring her, or telling her to stop bothering her, she's trying to read.

The truth is that Nancy is insufferable here. She feels it's undignified for her to be working at Scoops Fucking Ahoy for the summer, but she still tries to make everything the way it's supposed to because she's already going through the shame of working at Scoops, she's not going to humilliate herself by doing it poorly, too. Plus, she genuinely wants to be nice to clients, until they stop being nice to her. Still she keeps a tight smile whenever they come make her life a living hell, something her coworker can't seem to pull herself to do. It's as if Robin didn't care that people could tell she was tired or annoyed, and she's seen her fight with Erica more times than she deems appropriate. She doesn't appreciate Robin hissing like a cat at a 10 year old girl.

Nancy is just... confused as to how she even got to this point and who did she anger to get paired up with Robin Fucking Buckley. Yes, she's trying to make some money, but truly, how could this have been the only place that called her?

So she's always giving Robin a hard time, scolding her for not smiling enough and condecendingly showing her how it's done (which only earns her the most dead of stares from Robin), or telling her to just go to the back of the store to keep playing with her language tapes if she's not going to do things correctly. Robin just rolls her eyes at that.

She doesn't mock her as much as she does Steve, but when she does, it's her way of challenging her in her flaws, it's constructive even if neither of them realize. Nancy will ramble about how Robin clearly doesn't care about their job and she's sorry if she doesn't need it as much as Nancy does, but she won't let her become an obstacle, to which Robin responds by raising her eyebrows, throwing her head back and saying "wow, Wheeler, that was so inspiring. I mean, I knew the Wheelers were dirt poor but I didn't think it was that bad. Hey, look, we have that in common!" Nancy doesn't like being undignified, but Robin isn't afraid of shaking her a little - mostly making sarcastic comments whenever Nancy does something she wouldn't expect Nancy Wheeler to do, in a way that is unfair because it shows how little she knows her and how many ugly things she assumes about her. That's another thing that drives Nancy mad too, because she's still so full of pain and fear and anger, and now this weirdo is poking fun at the fact she owns guns (plural) as if it were some kind of punchline and not another piece in her trauma puzzle.

I think they surprise each other by how well they work together while cracking the code once Nancy stops scolding Robin for running through the mall and standing on a table, spinning around while talking to herself. She's shocked by the fact she speaks four languages, and even more shocked when she cracked the code when Nancy couldn't. That's when she stops seeing Robin as an apathetic weirdo who's made it her life mission to annoy her, and starts seeing her as an incredibly intelligent young woman whose brain works in mysterious ways. Nancy almost wants to take her brain out of her head and study it, because it's as if she were hanging upside down, looking at things backwards and reading secret patterns no one else can see. It actually inspires Nancy to try to solve problems the way Robin does. It surprises Robin to no end when Nancy is suddenly taking her seriously and asking for her opinion. She's so shocked she doesn't even make sarcastic comments about it.

I think Robin starts seeing Nancy differently as she starts to open up, slowly. She tells her the essential only at first - different dimensions, girl with powers, monster hunting, demonic possesions, now apparently russian spies as well. Whenever Robin asks how she even got involved in all of this, Nancy gives an obviosuly incomplete explanation about helping a friend find his brother (Robin sees through it immediately - why go so far for someone she didn't even know? It'd make a little bit more sense if she did it to help her own brother, but that's not what she said, so she's obviosly hiding something). Robin is still shocked that Nancy Wheeler owns guns. She's even more shocked when she gives one to her, as if she knew what to do with it, and even more when they get intercepted and Nancy fucking shoots and kills one of those guys. Robin did not expect her summer to go like this. It must be some weird kind of dream.

It happens slowly. Robin shows more of her charming nature without quite opening up. She manages to trick an agent by speaking a little bit of russian, she manipulates one of their torturers so they won't hurt Nancy, she bravely talks back despite Nancy begging her to keep her mouth shut and somehow it works. Somehow these people are convinced, somehow, that it's more convenient for them to keep them alive and with all their bones intact. It's like Nancy has been thrown into a whole new reality, in which making yourself small and try to politely convince people to listen to you isn't compulsory, in which you can be defiant and cunning and determined and win. Make them listen to you. Even if the victory is small, it's still a victory. Thanks to Robin, she gets to keep all her nails. Maybe talking so much wasn't a flaw after all.

She opens up slowly - about Barb, and her guns, and the violence she's seen and all the pain inside her heart, and Robin feels so stupid for thinking she was a priss. Nancy is profoundly touched by grief and loneliness. She lost a part of her heart at 15 she's never getting back.

But Robin doesn't open up back. She apologizes for being mean and reassures her that they'll both see Barb soon, and she won't be alone when that happens. All she says about herself is that she feels, you know, like she ruins everything. Nancy doesn't understand, but what Robin means to say is that she has only thought about Tammy Thompson once since this all started, and it was to say to herself, I don't even care if I never see her again, if I get to die next to Nancy Wheeler. And she feels like that is even more forbidden, somehow.

They're drugged. They talk. They're rescued and they get sick and they vomit most if the drugs. Most of it. And they ask each other things. Nancy asks why so many languages, and Robin tells her about Operation Croissant, thinking Nancy will make fun of her, but it seems she just finds it cute. She asks Nancy about Jonathan. She tells her she doesn't think their relationship has any salvation, after she made them lose their previous job. That's stupid, says Robin. Weren't you right after all? Your boss is a piece of shit, by the way.

I dragged him with me. He shouldn't have lost his job because of me.

Fuck that. I'd say it's on your boss. Didn't that guy send you to solve the mystery of the missing mustard?

My boss? Yeah, something like that.

Nancy asks her then if she's ever had any boyfriend. She can't imagine anyone being unable to fall utterly in love with Robin once they get to know her. She expresses this sentiment to her, and Robin gets somber all of a sudden. You don't actually know me, Wheeler, she says.

I like to think I know enough to mean what I say, Nancy replies.

Well, you're wrong. People just... don't know me. No one does. I don't know if you've realized, but I don't have any friends. I'm not the kind of person who's known by other people. Or has friends.

It breaks Nancy's heart a little to hear that.

Robin, do you think we could be... friends? She asks. She normally wouldn't say something like that so directly, but she's still under the influence of drugs, and she really wanted to be Robin's friend.

But Robin feels like becoming friends with Nancy while knowing of these newly developed feelings is a crime. It is if Nancy doesn't know the truth.

There's something you need to know before we're friends.

What is it?

You're not gonna like it, and you're not going to want to be my friend after you hear it.

Robin, you can tell me.

Do you remember Tammy Thompson?

And so she tells her. She tells her almost everything: that she's always felt out of place, always a stranger, always an outsider, always unable to keep friendships and always feeling something she shouldn't. Worrying about what people were gonna say, what they were gonna think, if they were going to hate her, if she was simply too much and had something fundamentally wrong in her that made her unloveable. She dumps all of this on Nancy, expecting her to be annoyed or disgusted, or to simply realize she didn't actually like Robin all that much, in the end.

But Nancy just takes her hand says, Robin, listen to me. That is not true. Any girl would be lucky to have you.

And in that moment, it feels like she's breathing in for the first time in her life. Like there's a small puzzle piece being sloted into a hole in her heart that she'd forgotten was there. She feels her nose itch, and her eyes water a little bit.

Can we be friends, then? Nancy shyly asks, like a kid at the playground. Robin laughs weatly and nods.

Uh... yeah. Yes. I'd love to be friends, actually.

Nancy smiles, and to her surprise, she raises on her knees and hugs her. It's been a long time Robin has received a hug from anyone other than her parents, and she's never felt this happy.