#should part 3 be the beginnings of ronance or how eddie met nancy?

[sam-loves-seb]

part 1 | part 2

the fruity four but make it hollywood au (2/x)

thinking about makeup artist robin and stunt double steve, both young and inexperienced and new to the area, maybe 19ish, who meet on the set of their first gig--a small commercial about auto insurance where steve has to pretend to crash a car and then robin has to cover him in fake bruises and blood--and become instant friends. robin and steve who are both sleeping on couches of a friend of a friend, who barely scrap together enough money to get an apartment together but they do it.

they work odd jobs to make rent in between gigs. steve refs basketball games on the weekends. robin does face paint at children's birthday parties. it's anything but glamorous, but they wouldn't trade this life for the world. not when they're booking one commercial every three months, not when they sign on to their first tv shows, not when they walk the red carpet together at steve's first leading role movie premiere and the internet goes crazy thinking they're a couple.

they keep living together long after they can both afford their own places--"we're both on locations half the year anyways, i feel like i barely see you enough as it is"--trading in grungy one bedroom spaces for a sold, stable two bedroom apartment big enough for a kitchen and a living room, then upgrading again a few years later to a deluxe sky view tenth floor apartment big enough for a guest room.

it's paradise, living with your best friend. until your best friend gets a boyfriend and falls stupidly in love.

"Robin," steve tries to reason with her. "I'm not leaving the building--hell, i'm not even leaving our floor. I'll be two doors down!"

steve moving in with eddie munson was not on robin's bingo card, but here they are, packing boxes and saying goodbye.

"For fuck's sake," Steve groans. "It's not goodbye--I'm literally coming over tomorrow to watch Bake Off with you."

"You better be."

and so, steve moves out, moves in down the hall with eddie, and robin has to wallow in her apartment all alone for another two weeks before her next job is set to start shooting in georgia. the two weeks are fine, she can live by herself for two weeks, but it's the knowing that she's always going to be coming back to an empty apartment that kills her.

until eddie gets a brilliant idea.

"I have a friend," he tells her one night, when steve is passed out with his head on eddie's lap and it's just eddie and robin watching this week's episode of survivor. "She's been living in Paris for the last year, shooting a handful of French indie films, but she's coming back to LA next month."

Robin raises a brow. "So?"

"So..." Eddie shrugs, running his hand through Steve's hair. "She has her own place in the hills, but she usually crashes in my guest room when she's in town. She'd never admit it, but I don't think she really likes living alone--and I don't blame her. But it's hard finding real fucking friends in our lines of work."

"Eddie, what the hell is your--"

"Have you ever considered getting another roommate?"

and that is how robin finds herself living with famed child/teen actress nancy wheeler, who wears choppy bangs and dark eye makeup that definitely do not go with the family-friendly sitcom star persona she wore for almost a decade.

robin thinks she likes this nancy better, even if she does smoke cigarettes like they're going out of style.

(how eddie munson and nancy wheeler ever became friends in the first place is story for another place and time, but as robin watches nancy smile for the first time in a week when eddie comes over, she makes a mental note to find steve tomorrow and get the full story.)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | ko-fi