#stevenancyjonathan

Title: it's a risk, it's a gamble

Author: nondz (pinkjook)

Fandom: Stranger Things

Pairing: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Anxiety Attack

Length: ~60,000 words

Summary:

“I think we should pretend to date,” Robin says.

“What?” Steve sputters.

I know more than enough what it’s like to want a ship to be canon and it isn’t. I got that with Joanlock from Elementary. And technically I still have it with Stranger Things - because as soon as I learned the a huge chunk of fandom imagined Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve in a polyamorous relationship, that became my ultimate headcanon for these characters. 

Yes, honestly I prefer Nancy with Jonathan and I’m glad it’s canon, I think season 1 hinted strongly they were going that way with Nancy’s character. But I also hate love triangles of any sort, and even though we didn’t get the classic gross Love Triangle™ with Steve being jealous and Nancy being super torn, we still got a teenage girl having to choose between two guys. And the writers went a lazier route and had a third party explain the situation to Nancy and Jonathan instead of having the three people involved figure it out themselves (as hilarious as that scene was). 

Whatever complaints you have about how Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve were written in season 2 (and I myself have plenty) I still see my own headcanon of the three of them in a poly relationship as the most valid and convincing to me. Because before season 2 even came out I was already convinced that’s who these characters were to me, the three of them belonged together and that’s my preferred way of imagining them. Technically, yes, season 2 has negated that possibility, but I think it’s actually partly because of the shoddy (rushed, lazy, however you want to say it) writing that it’s easier for me to retain my headcanon that Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve are in a poly relationship with each other.

I don’t think the canon negates the idea that these three characters could form a poly relationship. I actually think the lack of any clear communication between the three characters helps support the idea they could have a poly relationship together in the future.

First, Nancy never says, sober, that she doesn’t love Steve. Other people put those words back in her mouth when she’s sober, Murray and Steve. All we get from Nancy is a confirmation that she has feelings for Jonathan and that she refuses to “retreat” as Murray worded it.

Eleven months (eleven again, they just love that number) is a long time to date someone and not actually want to. We can infer that Nancy needed support after Barb’s death and Steve was most readily available to give it (and though she said she “waited” for Jonathan, neither states that they communicated their feelings to each other, so in my view both are to blame for not expressing their attraction sooner). They have chemistry and even if Nancy isn’t sure she loves Steve, she cares for him. Her drunken speech was fueled by her feelings of guilt and helplessness regarding Barb and Barb’s parents. Nancy is also sixteen/seventeen in the canon. Far too young to know, for sure, forever, that she loves or does not love someone. Steve and Jonathan are also too young. So that only fuels my headcanon that they could establish a poly relationship in the future, when they know themselves and each other much better.

So that’s my thought process on how these three could have a poly relationship. Many of the headcanons and fics I read about them being poly together are still plausible too, with a few edits to the timelines of any fics that establish a concrete time for the events being written. Given that the actors are in their mid-twenties, it’s been easier for me to imagine the characters post-college age in all my headcanons and when I read fics of them because as a 26 year old myself, I just automatically fast-forward in my mind to the age they actually appear.

The reason these three characters were so easy for me to imagine as poly is that at the end of season 1, Steve and Jonathan ended on good terms. Nancy still showed warmth toward Jonathan that was reciprocated. There was no animosity remaining between any of them, nor did Steve display any jealousy or possessiveness over Nancy in a way meant to ward off Jonathan.

Then in season 2 Jonathan and Steve do not communicate at all. Steve does express a similar jealousy as he does in season 1 over knowing that Nancy is spending time with Jonathan, but that is clearly written to show that he has known for a long time that Nancy does not want to date him. If I want to see them as poly, and I do, I’d conclude that Nancy doesn’t want to date just Steve. There is nothing to disprove that Nancy has been dissatisfied with her relationship with Steve because she also wants Jonathan, but has not known how to approach the subject, to herself let alone to Steve or Jonathan.

And the reason I made this longwinded post is because I want to express why I think it’s odd that so many in fandom let canon dictate what relationships can be talked about (I’m sure I need to follow particular blogs that ship these three as poly, if they exist…). I suppose I’m crackshipping Steve and Jonathan at this point, because they didn’t interact in season 2. But also what was established in canon in season 1 supports rather than negates a poly relationship between these three.

I’ve been wondering for a while if I’m in the minority when it comes to seeing my headcanons as more valid and worthy of exploration than canon? And why should that be a minority view, when fandom makes a point to discuss the same characters over and over again doing things that weren’t expressed in canon? Shipping characters in relationships that aren’t canon is just as valuable as expressing headcanons the canon doesn’t show. But I feel like there’s this unspoken divide between the two. It was expressed even better here, where a few people discuss why crackshipping is somehow seen as bad on this site in certain contexts. Frankly I agree with what was being said in the responses and I’m sick of feeling guilty for wanting to write/imagine something that isn’t backed up enough by the canon. (IMO Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve in a poly relationship isn’t implausible but with the events of season 2 I feel a lot of people will think it is and there will be backlash against people who still ship the three of them in a poly relationship.)