okay wait hear me out. ronance/stonathan secret dating headcanon.
but it's 1995 and both duos have grown apart from the other. of course, they occasionally exchange phone calls filled with small talk, but steve doesn't know robin and nancy have started dating, let alone that they have moved to new york and adopted a cat together. nancy doesn't know that jonathan got a photography job with madison square garden's media team, or that him and steve grew closer while filming jonathan's movie, started dating, and that steve moved to new york with jonathan to become a teacher and an athletic director at a public school in nyc.
robin got her teaching license and now teaches middle school english. during her planning period one day, her work friend, greg bursts through her door.
she and greg are both on the same teaching team, so they ended up spending a lot of time together. they ended up getting close enough to the point where one day, after work, robin felt comfortable enough to mention the fact that she is in a relationship with nancy. greg gave her the biggest smile and wrapped robin in a hug, revealing the fact that he too, was gay. the two grew even closer after that, and robin and nancy often invite him over for dinner and drinks or a game night.
so, when greg comes flying in through her door like he was about to tell her that her hair was on fire, she got a little nervous.
"robin, you will NEVER guess what."
"i just met the new history teacher that starts next week, and i happened to watch him walk into the parking lot, and i saw him get into a car with a man and KISS him!"
"okay? just okay? robin, the new history teacher might have a boyfriend. he might be like us."
"are you sure it was a man? are you sure it wasn't like... a woman with short hair or something?"
"no, robin, i am 100% positive. i'm serious."
"okay well, we still have to be careful, what if he doesn't want anyone to know? what if he's not out?"
"well, we don't have to say anything to him, at least not right away. we can just, befriend him and then get close to him, and then maybe one day we can talk about it. we can become best friends like the three amigos. the three gaymigos."
"i think you are thinking way too far ahead. i still don't even fully trust that you know what you saw."
"fine, well, i'll prove it. i think he has another meeting with principal chamberlain tomorrow, i'll come grab you before he leaves and we'll see if his boyfriend picks him up again."
"greg, i am not spying on the new history teacher, just because there's a small, minuscule, tiny chance, that he might have a boyfriend"
but that's exactly what they did.
greg came and dragged robin out of her classroom the next day, just as the new history teacher was leaving. they scurried down the hall like a pair of teenagers skipping class, and watched him walk outside from the window in the stairwell.
robin watches the back of the new teacher's head as he walks towards the gold chevy that just pulled up in front of the school, but it isn't until the teacher turned to the side that she realizes why the hair looked so familiar.
that side profile unmistakably belongs to steve harrington.
robin's chest fills with a feeling she's not quite sure she's ever felt before. her heart swells with love and excitement because she can't believe that steve is right there, but there's also a deep, mindnumbing ache because the man that was once so close to her they basically shared a brain, hadn't even called her in three months. she's so overwhelmed that she almost misses jonathan byers in the driver's seat. almost.
she watches as jonathan rolls down the drivers side window as steve walks up, and gives him a quick peck on the lips, before opening the backseat door and tossing his briefcase in.
"i'vegottago'" robin quickly mutters before absolutely bounding out the stairwell door to the front sidewalk. she manages to catch steve just before he gets into the passenger seat.
she walks right up to the door, and grabs his hand, and pulls him back towards the school.
"robin?" steve half-whispers as he confusedly lets himself be pulled through the hallways of the school. robin pulls him into her classroom.
"robin, what are you doing here?"
"i work here. are you dating jonathan?"
"what? since when do you live in new york city?"
"since i moved here. are you dating jonathan?"
"when did you move here?"
"steve. are you dating jonathan ulysses byers?"
steve knits his eyebrows together
"how do you know that his middle name is ulysses?"
"how do YOU know his middle name is ulysses?" robin says, as she finds herself close to shouting.
"because he's my boyfriend!" steve all but yells.
the silence that follows is thick.
robin feels a lump form in her throat and her temples start to burn. there's an ache in her chest but she's also nauseous. she doesn't know how to feel. she's so happy for steve. ecstatic even. but she's also angry that he didn't tell her. or maybe hurt? but she also feels a deep pang of guilt because she didn't tell him that she was dating nancy. or that she moved to new york city. she hadn't talked to him in ages.
"robin?" steve asks after several moments of silence.
"why didn't you tell me?" she asks, quietly.
"why didn't you tell me you moved to new york?" steve retorts, seemingly more bitter than he intended.
almost as if on cue, nancy walks through the door.
"hey, babe. you forgot your lunch. i threw a few of those raspberry truffles in there that you like, too." nancy says, as she rummages through the bag, completely missing steve to her right as she walks through the door.
nancy sharply turns around, the bag crinkling in her hands.
"steve?" she asks, with an unthinkable amount of surprise.
"is that why you didn't tell me?" he softly asks robin.
robin pulls the collar of her shirt up and over her face, as she mutters an 'oh my god' into the cloth.
conversation erupts, and its not an easy one. its tense and full of hurt and guilt and anger and yearning. jonathan walks through the door a few minutes later after parking the car because he swore he could have watched steve get whisked away by robin buckley? he joins the conversation too. the group realizes how much they all started to avoid each other because robin started dating her best friend's ex girlfriend who used to date her best friend's now boyfriend but none of them knew that they were dating any of each other so they let fear and guilt push them apart. fear and guilt that only grew the longer they didn't talk to each other. tears were shed, but they caught up. they were laughing again before they knew it, and after a promise to never lose touch with each other again, and to not keep secrets anymore, they all go home.
they continue to see each other, and grow closer, and steve and jonathan start to join greg and robin and nancy for game nights. they continue to grow closer, possibly closer than they had ever been before.
