What if Steve got cursed instead of Nancy?

Nancy and Eddie were screaming at him to wake up, but his eyes were still glazed over. Robin was screaming in Eddie's bedroom, trying to find music.

"Quick, Wheeler, kiss him!" Eddie squeaked.

"W-hy?" Nancy asked.

"You know, true love's kiss!" Eddie exclaimed.

"What?! One, Steve and I are not in love, and two, I don't believe in true love, not for me anyway." Nancy said.

"Makes sense. Okay, I completely misread that situation," Eddie said.

"Why don't you kiss him?" Nancy asked.

"What? Why?!" Eddie asked.

"Because I'm not completely stupid," Nancy said, and her face softened. "I've seen what Steve’s like when he's falling in love."

"Fine!"

Eddie grabbed him and kissed him. He felt him relax all of a sudden, causing him to break the kiss. Eddie's knees collapsed, and Steve was lying sideways in his arms. His face was ashen as he looked at Eddie, breathing heavily. Steve grabbed his face, trembling, and kissed him. Eddie felt the tears on Steve’s face as he sobbed against his lips.

"Eddie," Steve cried, breaking the kiss and burrowing his face into his neck.

Eddie gripped him tightly, rubbing his back and kissing the top of his head.

"I've got you, big boy. I'm here," Eddie whispered.

you know who else has off the wall aromantic swag??? nancy wheeler.

the pure horror on her face when steve mentioned wanting six kids and settling down??? me too bestie!!! can't say I love you to any of your boyfriends?? I see you girl!!!! She's such a woman who comes out as a lesbian in college only to realize that... wait a minute??? I don't like romance with women either???

Aro4Aro Stancy Break-Up AU Part 1

Or: Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler are both aromantic. Neither realize this. Poor Jonathan Byers ends up in the middle.

It hits him like a slap. The sounds of the party outside the bathroom door distort, muffle, cease. He can’t hear anything past Nancy’s words.

“Like we’re in love?” he asks. He cups her face, like you’re supposed to cup your girlfriend’s face. It’s soft. Nice. His gut curdles.

“It’s bullshit.” She spits it at him, eyes unfocused, mouth snarling. 

He wants to ask her, “how did you know?” Wants to shake her and demand what gave away the game, where he went wrong. He doesn’t. “You don’t love me?” Steve asks.

“It’s bullshit.” She doesn’t sound angry anymore. She sounds like she’s going to cry. That’s what keeps his feet planted. 

“Okay,” he says, backing up a few steps and dropping his hand from her cheek. “Let’s get you home, Nance.”

It’s hard. Nancy’s all elbows and flailing limbs. Even when she’s plastered, Nancy knows what she wants and right now, that’s away from Steve.

“Get off me.” The looks he gets from the partygoers at the bottom of the stairs tells him exactly how this spectacle is going to go over at school tomorrow. Didn’t you hear? Steve Harrington’s just a chip off the old block. Can’t seem to take no for an answer. 

“Harrington?” Jonathan Byers’ disgusted face tells him that it’s going over just the same for him. He stands at the bottom of the stairs, a red cup in hand. A bit of the lurid red spiked punch sloshes onto the floor as he passes it to one of the kids he’s standing next to. He takes a single step forward, pushing up the sleeves of his jacket like they’re in some action flick. “What the hell are you–”

“Jonathan,” Nancy says, slurring. Her mouth is stained that same lurid red. Her sweater, too. “It’s bullshit.”

She’s crying when she says it. The gossips surrounding the spectacle are already whispering to each other, giggling behind hands and faux concern, too quiet for Steve to hear over the music. Something swells in Steve, a latent desire to bodily shield Nancy Wheeler from anything coming her way. Even if it’s just high schoolers. Even if he’s bullshit.

He sighs. “Help me get her home, man.”  

Jonathan’s arms drop, his sleeves rolling down as gravity does it’s job. Steve refuses to meet his gaze, eyes trained on his sneakers, watching them shuffle back and forth on his toes with indecision, until they finally make their way toward where Steve and Nancy are stalled out at the bottom of the stairs. Jonathan must put his arm around her because her weight on Steve’s back lessens.

They limp their way through costumed teenagers, shoving through when the bodies seem unwilling to move. The chilled October night air hits like relief. Steve gulps it down.

“Where’s your car?” Jonathan asks, quiet.

Steve finally looks over Nancy’s head at the other boy. He doesn’t look mad anymore. His brows furrowed in a expression Steve isn’t familiar enough to read. “Did you drive?” Steve asks. “Did you drink?”

“Mom has the car.” His shoulders droom, like that’s somehow a shameful admission.

“Did you drink?”

Jonathan shakes his head, “barely got my first sip.”

Nancy’s hiccuping between them, muttering quietly to herself. He hears some choice B words –  “Barb” and “bullshit” and “boyfriends”  – before tuning her out. 

He fishes his keyes out of his back pocket, tossing them left-handed to the other boy. “Can you drive?” he asks, relieved when Jonathan nods.

Steve leads the way to his car where it’s parked down the block. It takes concentrated effort to shuffle Nancy into the backseat. She lays down, face smushed into the leather seats. They don’t bother trying to wrangle her into a seatbelt, just close the door and slide into the front.

When Jonathan starts the car, Blondie belts out about her heart of glass – la, da, da, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, yeah, riding high on love's true bluish light – at a volume that really emphasizes the tonal shift the night’s taken. Jonathan turns the volume all the way down until all they can hear is Nancy crying in the backseat. The true soundtrack of the night. 

The twelve minute drive to the Wheeler house drags on for hours. Jonathan's knuckles are white on the steering wheel, and Steve's head keeps boucing off the glass of his window with how he's pressing his heated cheek to it. Nancy stops crying by miute three, starts snoring by minute eight. No one says a word.

Steve and Jonathan don't communciate beyond hand gestures and mouthed commands as the lever a grumbling Nancy out of the car and sneak her into her house and into her bed without waking anyone up. She's going to be pissed in the morning. Her teeth are unbrushed, she's still in her stained sweater, and her shoes are still in, shoved under the quilt on her bed with the rest of her. Steve lingers at the threshold, staring down at her as she sleeps. She's so beautiful it makes his heart stutter nauseatingly. 

This is what love feels like. 

Jonathan is already settled into the driver's seat when Steve makes it back out to the car. He slides into the passenger seat, looking out the front of the windshield, palms sweating. 

"What now?" Jonathan asks. 

Steve looks at him from the corner of his eye, surprised to find the other boy already looking back. "Take me home?"

Jonathan turns the key in the ignition and drives.  

Part 2

💚🤍🖤

thinking currently of aroace stoncy concepts…..

steve dating around pre s1 which gives him this popular heartthrob player reputation, but no one catches on that he never puts out on his dates bc it never feels right…until he starts dating nancy. when he finally develops feelings for jonathan he’s surprised not because it’s another guy but because it’s another person who isn’t nancy

jonathan realizing he’s uninterested in sex and suggesting he and nancy open their relationship. nancy starts something with steve, and jonathan worries nancy will realize steve alone is enough for her and break things off with jonathan completely. his worries are forgotten when nancy seems happy and when steve seems really cool with the whole thing and starts trying to get to know jonathan and spend time with him even when nancy isn’t around. then steve invites him to a nice place for dinner and Jonathan says yes without thinking and then wakes up in a cold sweat the next morning like “wait. am i also dating steve?”

aromantic nancy who can’t understand why she gets this feeling of dread whenever steve or jonathan tell her how they feel about her and hates the idea of them arguing about her or waiting to see who she chooses. and yet it feels so simple and right when it’s the three of them together —grabbing dinner at the diner or going to the movies or accidentally falling asleep tangled up together on steve’s couch — just three people who went through something together and are important to each other in ways that are hard to define

asexual jonathan who doesn’t experience sexual attraction. nancy and steve are dating and jonathan has feelings for nancy but hasn’t acted on it. it takes him longer to realize he has feelings for steve too and when he does he’s nervous because steve has a reputation and wouldn’t he want to be with someone who can stroke his ego and appreciate his looks or whatever??? but everyone in steve’s life up to a certain point only liked him because he was popular or because he had rich parents or because of his looks and never actually liked him because of him so for steve to realize jonathan likes him solely because of who he is, that he has two partners who appreciate who he is as a person, means a lot to him

aromantic nancy wheeler <333

HAPPY AROMANTIC AWARENESS WEEK!!

Since I made Stranger Things asexual icons for ace week~~~

Say hello to the new icons!!

In order: aromantic El, aromantic Murray, aromantic Steve, aromantic Nancy, arospec Nancy, demiromantic Mike

Let me know if there's another you'd like to see :D (or a different idea, I'm just doing Stranger Things because I'm in the fandom, but I'm aro 24/7 and I'd love to post more aro things!!)

"Aromantic Things" blog header✨️✨️

Stranger Things Sexualities Canon/Headcanons:

(TW: Opinion)

Steve Harrington: Bisexual

Robin Buckley: Lesbian

Eddie Munson: Gay, Aromantic Spec

Nancy Wheeler: Unlabeled

Will Byers: Gay

Eleven: Pansexual

Max Mayfield: Bisexual

Dustin Henderson: Asexual, Queer

Argyle: Pansexual

Mike Wheeler: Bisexual (Internalised Homophobia)

Billy Hargrove: Gay (Internalised Homophobia)

(Canon: Robin & Will)

Nancy Wheeler is Aromantic, You Cannot Change my Mind

Am I aware what the Duffers were actually trying to do with her characterization/arc? Yes. Do I care? No. This reading is way more fun for me because I love projecting lmao, so here we go.

The first two seasons of Stranger Things spent a lot of time telling us that Nancy was in the midst of an internal conflict. She's a teenager, she's figuring out who she is. Ostensibly, her choice is between conforming, dating the popular guy who makes her do things like, gasp, drink beer and go to parties, or not caring what other people think, dating the guy she has more in common with even though he's not "socially acceptable." People are constantly telling her that she isn't herself around Steve. That she's changing in order to be with him. She's lying to herself.

But that choice between popular guy and outcast loser goes out the window when Steve throws away everything to be with her. He ditches his friends, he gets replaced. He's now also the target of harassment by "popular kids." So what exactly is Nancy hiding from here. What is safer about choosing Steve.

Well.

She has to tell herself that she loves Steve, that she always did, because if she didn't then she gave up her virginity for shallow reasons. She slept with someone just because she liked how he looked. Like a slut.

She was always terrified of being seen this way, she was scared Steve would tell people they slept together, and despite how little interest she had in being around Steve after they had sex, she was scared to admit to herself that she'd already gotten everything she wanted from him. So she tried to make it work, and ultimately it hurt both of them.

(And can I just say, as an aromantic person, it is sometimes very difficult to conceptualize what romance is like for other people. I genuinely think Nancy had no idea how much Steve cared about her, and she wasn't thinking about how much she hurt him because it's just not something she understands. I speak from experience, breaking up with people who are way more invested in your relationship that you ever could be is...really difficult and weird.)

So, when her choice is no longer between being accepted in a high school popularity hierarchy or not, it becomes more about her conforming to societal standards or not. Does she choose the guy who wants to settle down and have kids and the whole white picket fence thing or...what. What exactly is different about Jonathan. He once said "screw that" to the idea of starting a nuclear family in some suburb?

I think what's different about Jonathan is that he's not constantly telling her he loves her. Steve seemed to say it...often. Just. Out of the blue. He liked to verbalize it, and he wanted her to do the same. Correct me if I'm wrong but Jonathan and Nancy have never once exchanged on-screen "I love you"s, as far as I can remember. Yeah they have their "that's why I love them" speeches in s4 but that's not the same. Loving someone isn't the same as wanting to be romantic with them. It's about expectations, and Jonathan's seem to be very different than Steve's were.

And while we're on the topic of expectations, I think the fact that her parents never loved each other really doesn't help when it comes to her difficulty figuring out what she wants and why. She explicitly said she doesn't want her life to be like that, she's seen it and she's come to expect unhappiness in a relationship with no romantic attachment.

So she tries her hardest to find something real. Something different. She likes spending time with Steve, she's attracted to Steve, and he definitely loves her, so maybe this is her opportunity to build a life better than her mother's. Except it just doesn't feel right. She likes kissing him but when he wants to date her, when he tries to communicate feelings, it makes her uncomfortable. And she feels shitty about it, it feels shitty when someone is being nice to you but you kind of hate it. But she already slept with him, so she feels obligated to make it work. Only that implodes, because of course it does.

Then she self-sabotages with Jonathan too. She ignores his feelings when she wants to chase a lead in s3. She basically forgets she has a boyfriend when she starts to notice that Steve's still hot in s4. And then she doesn't talk to Jonathan at the end of the season, about anything. There's no conversation about how distant they've been. I don't know exactly what direction this is going to go in s5 but the way I see it right now, she's realizing that despite being more comfortable with Jonathan she's just not built to be in a relationship like this.

She keeps choosing to be in relationships though. Choosing to date Steve when Jonathan was preoccupied taking care of Will at the end of s1. And again, choosing to toe the line with Steve in s4 when Jonathan's not around. And obviously there's societal pressure for a teenage girl to care about romance, she's been conditioned to think this shit should matter, but also. More importantly:

She's traumatized.

This was after her first real encounter with a demogorgon, it stands to reason that being hounded by this shit for years wouldn't make her less traumatized, especially since she's prone to bottling up her feelings.

In my personal opinion, Nancy is so intent on being in relationships in part because she has a hard time being by herself, especially at night. She couldn't wait a couple months for Jonathan to come talk to her about their relationship because that meant she was spending a couple months sleeping alone. We see in s3 that she sleeps over at Jonathan's, and the way the Joyce completely fails to act surprised by the lipstick on Jonathan's cheek—even though Nancy supposedly snuck in and out—kind of implies she does this often.

The long and the short of it is, I don't see her endless relationship drama as evidence that she's indecisive or flighty, I think she's aromantic and has no idea. She's trying to deal with her conflicting self-image. When we first meet her she has this idea of herself as some rule-following good girl, not the kind of girl who sleeps around, not the kind of girl who has impure thoughts and breaks people's hearts. She's not a slut, so she must love the guys she sleeps with. She's not her mother, so she must love the person she dates. She doesn't have any other frame of reference for love and relationships, so she keeps screwing up because she's trying to force herself into boxes she'll never fit.

---

shoutout to @thinger-strang ty for showing interest 😭💕💕 here's an essay lmao

Robin Buckley from Stranger Things is a polyamorous canonically lesbian sex-neutral asexual transmascfem nonbinary person with ADHD and dyspraxia who uses they/them, he/him, and she/her pronouns!

Vickie is a polyamorous canonically bisexual sapphic transfeminine demigirl with ADHD who uses she/her pronouns!

Nancy Wheeler is an autistic polyamorous aromantic sapphic transfeminine person with ADHD who uses she/her and they/them pronouns!

Chrissy Cunningham is a polyamorous sex-favorable asexual sapphic cis woman who uses she/her pronouns!

Theyr'e all dating!

dni link

Max walked over to Nancy who was fixing herself a drink in Steve's kitchen. Max pushed herself up on the counter.

"It doesn't bother you?" Max asked.

"What?" Nancy asked.

"That everyone else is coupling up, and you're not," Max said. "I mean, there's Steve and Eddie. Robin and Vickie. Jonathan and Argyle. Hell, we finally got to meet Suzie. Then there's me, Lucas and El. Even your brother got his head out of his ass with Will. Hopper and Joyce just got married. Doesn't it make you feel lonely?"

"How can I be lonely when I'm surrounded by all of my friends who are insanely happy?" Nancy asked, and Max raised an eyebrow. "I spent a lot of time in a relationship. I went directly from Steve to Jonathan with no space in between, and I did all that while grieving for Barb. It's nice to have this time to myself and focus on school. Romance isn't as important to me as it is to other people. It took me a while to realize that it's not a bad thing nor is wanting it either. I am so happy having friends who understand what we've been through. I've closed myself from having that for a long time. It feels good to have that again. Being single isn't a bad thing. Being in a relationship isn't bad either. Wanting different things isn't either. Being single is a choice that I've made and that I'll happily keep making until I decide that I want to be in a relationship. I'm open to all possibilities, too."

"Wow. . .you're awesome, you know that?" Max asked, giving her a crooked smile and hopping off the counter.

"You're awesome too," Nancy said. "I'm glad you're happy."

"I'm glad you're happy too," Max replied.

Nancy grinned and put her arm around Max as they walked back into the living room.

Nancy and Eddie and the girls who haunt them

Nancy/Eddie | Rated E | AO3 Link

Nancy swallows her pride and returns to Hawkins when her carefully crafted life in Boston falls apart. In the five years since she abruptly cut everyone off and skipped town, all the people she once knew have left for bigger, brighter futures. Everyone except for Eddie Munson, local drug dealer turned reluctant mechanic who is willing to help Nancy out after her car breaks down. They build a careful friendship over shared trauma and a mutual refusal to talk about their reasons for ending up in the same town that nearly killed them. Feelings grow, cars get fixed and Boston looms on the horizon.

This is a rarepair, mixed with my most depressing headcanons, two characters on the aromantic spectrum and an ending that could maybe pass for bittersweet if you squint. It’s really just for me, but you guys can read it if you want I guess <33 Got a little snippet for you under the cut or you can go read the whole first chapter on AO3 (just mind the tags if you do!!)

“Hello?” Her voice gets lost in the big empty space. “Anyone still in here?” “Do my eyes deceive me?” Nancy whips her head toward the sound. A familiar drawl and a deep voice. “Or is that miss Nancy Wheeler?” The man approaches from an obscured door in the back of the shop. It’s been years but she can tell it’s him right away. Eddie Munson, in the flesh. It’s the eyes. Warm brown and wider than they should be. It’s gotta be the eyes she recognizes because everything else about him is different. His hair is cut right above his shoulders with most of the layers tied back in a careless bun. No chains, no ripped jeans. Just navy blue coveralls with the company logo zipped all the way up. He’s traded in his white sneakers for steel toed boots and his wild smile for a deep set exhaustion that glistens on his face. He looks older than he should, but then again, so does Nancy. Last she saw him, he was still dealing weed out of his uncle’s trailer with big talk about Indianapolis. Chicago. New York. That was five years ago. “What are you doing here?” she asks. He grins and grabs a bandanna from his back pocket to wipe the sweat off his forehead. His face is slimmer, the last of his baby cheeks well and truly gone. A small tattoo peaks out over his collar and thick black lines disappear into his his curls. A tiny part of her, the eighteen year old that’s burrowed in the back of her brain, refusing to grow up, wants to close the gap and hug him. Her body remembers Eddie. His comforting grin and the tight fit under the curve of his shoulder. But the guy in front of her might as well be a stranger. “You know, most people would just say hi.” Nancy rolls her eyes. They should be past small talk, right? Doesn’t a joined trip to hell earn you that comfort? Or does the privilege dwindle with every year away? “Hi, Eddie. How have you been?” She scrunches her nose in a sticky sweet smile. “Lovely weather we’ve been having. You defeat any monsters lately?” Eddie doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t look away either. The tip of his tongue traces the back of his teeth, just shy of amused. “Now what are you doing here?” she repeats. Still. That’s the unspoken part. What are you still doing here? You were supposed to get out of here. “I could ask you the same thing.” He folds his arms.“We all gave up on you ever coming back, Wheeler.” There’s just the slightest hint of bitterness in his voice. Nancy clutches the strap of her handbag and purses her lips together. Yeah. So did she. They didn’t exactly leave on good terms, her and Eddie. There’s barely anyone in Hawkins who she didn’t burn her bridges with. Not on purpose, but not not on purpose either. Somewhere after the third missed Christmas, the silence becomes intentional. Every missed phone call adds up on the other end of the line, until the invisible tally reaches a tipping point and people stop reaching out. Or until she changed her phone number. “I work here,” Eddie adds when the silence stretches. He points at the logo on his coveralls. “Past four years.” That’s a long time. Almost the entire time Nancy was away. It almost certainly means he never got out. “Well my car is broken.” Eddie’s mouth drops slightly before he cackles out a laugh. Loud and booming in the big empty space and theatrical as ever. He makes a show of it, hands on his knees and everything. “Are you… Are you laughing?” “Come on, Wheeler…” He wipes at an imaginary tear in the corner of his eye. “You gotta admit this whole thing is a little funny.” Read chapter 1 on AO3 (again, please mind the tags if you do!)

Fruity Four as a Queerplatonic Polycule

Before anyone else gets together, Robin and Steve are already queerplatonic partners

Steve and Eddie are the only ones that are dating romantically

Robin is open to a romantic relationship outside of her polycule but not actively looking for it because she already feels fulfilled and loved

Nancy is not looking for a romantic or sexual relationship because she wants to focus on her career and gets her needs met by her qpp

Every. Single. Time. someone touches Robin (holds her hand, hugs her, cuddles with her) she goes “ew” or makes other disgusted sounds

She’s the cuddliest of the whole bunch though, even if she doesn’t instigate it first

Nancy is the one that sets up the most dates

She also notices little things about her partners and gets them their favorite candy/drink/snack when she sees it’s on sale

Eddie is the one that notices when they’re triggered most often and will ask if they’re okay

Steve is the one that has to have his hand held at all times because he keeps getting lost

Steve and Eddie think that it’s HILARIOUS to confuse as many people as possible on who is dating who

The first pet name was used by Steve and twas an accident

He called Eddie babe, which made sense since they were romantically dating, but then called Robin babe too

They all had a big conversation about boundaries thanks to Nancy and pet names were totally in the mix now

Cue Robin coming up with the most absurd, specific inside joke shit she can find to call them

Eddie becomes dedicated to finding out what hankies they could use for when they go to metal shows in Chicago

Despite being the most responsible, Nancy also has the most going on so Steve and Robin will tag-team taking care of her

Kisses end up coming into the mix too

They confuse the absolute shit out of the party when Eddie, a gay, and Robin, a lesbian, share a small lil smooch after Nancy and he come in to visit their partners at home movie

Eventually they have to teach the kids about queerplatonic relationships and they’ve created a disaster because they immediately try it out but they’re all children made out of chaos

consider with me: frayromantic nancy wheeler

Hey so I was writing a Fruity Six™ fic inspired by Tales of the City that I had planned to have well balanced POV chapters, focusing on all of my babes, and I got to 5 chapters, right. But then some stuff started annoying me and I took a break, reread it, and am now torn between rewriting it with a different start.

The original is a post season 4 AU, 1987, everybody lives, where Nance, Robs and Jon took a year before college to deal with the, yk, trauma of it all, and the babysitter's club gets very close, so halfway through the school year, Steve suggests a road trip, they visit San Fran and decide to stay there a bit longer, in this super cool house owned by Ms Madrigal (a trans woman with a great ability to clock everything, better than Murray's) and then deciding actually? We could just stay here. But I got kinda of mad at it cause it sounds too improbable and I don't want to separate them from the rest of the party and shit so I'm not sure abt it anymore.

The second plot bunny said to make it a no Upside Down AU with Nance, Jargyle and Eddie already living in Ms Madrigal's [who's dating Wayne and is Argyle's something (tbd)]. Then platonic Stobin escapes their hellish hometown (maybe Robin gets outed and Steve won't let her run away alone or smth) and end up in San Fran, where they find a home and family with these very queer lovely people.

aro nancy wheeler