|| ronance oneshots from AO3 ||

|| thisbis not a party where people know your name ||

Written by @Roast_Beef_Flavoured_KoolAid again, they're just so incredibly talented!!

Angst and fluff

"For the last time Ricky. We do not have Dawn of the Dead on Betamax. If I see your zit riddled face behind my counter one more time I can and will skin you alive." Steve's hands are flat on the counter his eyes are dangerous. If it weren't for Robin pelting his face with popcorn every few seconds she's more than certain he would have jumped the counter by now. She barks out a laugh as Ricky slaps away one of the cardboard stands, flips him off, and storms out of the store.

"Down, Stevie, I don't think your street cred can handle getting your shit cleaned by an eleven year old." Robin attaches herself to Steve's side watching as his hackles drop immediately upon contact. She smiles up at him sweetly. His big doe eyes look into her's desperately trying to hold onto that heat, but it's gone when he exhales a deep sigh with the word, fine. He lays his head on top of her's reveling in her presence.

Still attached to him she retrieves some coloring pages from under the desk. They're supposed to be for children so employees can hand them out to crying kids or ones that ask, but who's going to miss a single sheet? She remembers reading somewhere that coloring could be a good relief for stress. It works wonders on Steve who needs a healthy cool down from the bursts of anger he still suffers from. Pulling out the few multicolored pens the store has she makes a vow to spend her next paycheck on the good coloring pencils.

They take turns coloring in the scene. It's of an anthropomorphic dog standing outside of a Family Video looking happy and welcoming families in. Totally definitely not a serial killer luring his next victim. Still connected to eachother she feels his chest rumble in dissatisfaction. Thumping her head against his chest he laments that they don't have any green to color the trees in. She looks up to his frustration stricken face and feels the urge to comfort him like always.

If she has a hard time reading other people by tone or face then she's become an expert in Steve Harrington. From his confused pitched eyebrows and pursed lips to his excited fistpumps to his incinerating death glare with his locked jaw fixed in a line. In return he keeps up with her when she's overwhelmed, he knows when she needs to excitedly slap his hands, he even knows how to pull her out of the fuge a terrible night with her mother has given her. There's only one other person in the world who knows her as well as him.

"It's okay, Stevie. Even if you only have the color black you can still make hundreds of shades of grey," Robin fills in a car's hubcap, "Or if you have something, say a tree, then you could use whatever color you want. A missing color can be substituted for something new. Maybe a different shade or something so wildly different you just have to stare at it. Say if you're coloring a tree and you don't have a green why not fill it in with some blue or possibly purple. It might not be green, but that's ok something new or something old can be just as good as what once was."

"Sometimes trees are purple." Robin looks up to Steve and sees him in deep thought. Normally she would cut into him telling him not to fry his brain thinking too hard. However now is not the time.

The bell at the door rings bringing them to full attention but not enough to seperate them completely. Nancy wanders in clutching a few books to the front of her chest. She heads to the counter with determination blazing in her eyes. They both stand at attention like two army privates before a commanding officer, not even their boss could get them to do that, but General Wheeler doesn't look as put together as usual. Upon further inspection Robin notices more make-up smudges like she has been wiping her face all day, there's red around her eyes, and her posture's slouched.

It's Steve who asks first, "What's up, Nance?"

"I- uh- it's April nineteenth. I don't want to be alone." Nancy's eyes land on Robin keeping her attention. The date immediately settles in the bottom of her stomach while Steve looks a bit lost. To him it's just another day, but to Nancy it might as well be D-Day for her soul. A few days after half the town fled she confided in Robin about her best friend who was one of the first, if not the first, to be taken by the Upside Down. They took flowers to her grave and Robin remembered the dates especially her birthday, April nineteenth.