Work Text:
i. here, or, where the friendship grows
Ever since Nancy came into Ace’s life, he started to crave more—from the world and from himself. He finds himself believing he’s capable, making a new family with his co-workers, and enjoying each day in a way he hadn’t before. He starts to turn to her more, look at her, because she’s like a bolt of lightning to his soul, like a jumpstart to his previously mundane life, and she changes his world.
He’s thinking about that now, as he drinks poison for her. He knows it’s not poison and he knows this because Nancy said so. But he thinks he might drink real poison for her too, if she needed that, because he knows she would find a way to outsmart death for his sake. So he doesn’t panic as he downs the vial, even as her eyes go wide and she nearly lunges to him. And he’s completely fine afterwards, just like he knew he would be.
Afterwards, Ace waits outside of the police station for Nancy to finish giving her statement to the cops. He’d gone first, giving her a thumbs up as he went in, and she had rolled her eyes, but there was a smile playing at her lips. She comes out now, approaching him with a wary look. She’s still slightly wary of him, of their group of friends, of anyone asking her to trust them, but he knows she’ll open up. And he’ll wait as long as it takes.
“Why did you drink it?” She approaches him until she’s only a few inches away. It’s one of her tells that she does trust him—the way she always stands so close to him. He takes great pride in it, in being someone the Hero of Horseshoe Bay chooses to have in her life. Technically he’s the Hero of Horseshoe Bay now, something he has echoed frequently to all his friends, but he still gives Nancy the title when he thinks of her.
He shrugs. “You said it was water.”
“Ace.” She makes a slightly exasperated face. “I could have been wrong.”
He gives her a dubious look. “You never are. And you weren’t this time.”
“Yeah.” She inches closer. “Which is a good thing, or else you would have been dead.”
“You’d have brought me back.”
“Ace! Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.” He tilts into her slightly, this pull between them always working to draw them as close to one another as possible, like a planet to the sun. “I trust you—with my life and everything else.”
Nancy’s eyes widen for a moment before softening. She gives him a rare smile, and he feels like a little kid getting the gold star on an assignment, unabashedly prideful and overjoyed in the way only a child can be. He feels like that every time she smiles at him, and the smile that comes onto his face is a result of that.
“Thank you,” she says, and something in the way she’s speaking now feels affectionate, like the words Ace says mean more than he could ever know. But he does know.
Ace finds himself wanting to touch her, in a way he always pulls himself back from, because he’s not sure she’s ready for that yet.
She makes the move, though, nudging his arm with her own as she moves to stand next to him, leaning against the wall. “Next time, though,” her eyes are still on him as she speaks, bright like the ocean when the sun reflects on it. “Wait until I give you a signal that the poison is safe to drink.”
His grin grows. “If it’s time sensitive, I don’t think I can wait for a signal.”
Nancy’s expression turns stern again, but there’s a teasing look in her eyes. “Then don’t do it.”
“I’ll try my best.”
She sighs. “I shouldn’t fight you on this, should I?”
“Nah,” Ace smiles down at her. “It might be the first argument you lose.”
With a glare at him, she turns and begins walking to the parking lot. “I never lose arguments.”
He follows her. “There’s a first for everything, Nancy.”
“Yeah, like maybe one day you’ll win an argument. That’s a first I’d like to see.”
“I can’t win or lose arguments when I’m so agreeable. I have a sunny disposition that makes people just want to agree with me.”
She laughs then, and it doesn’t sound musical like people say laughter does, it sounds like Nancy, like someone who is still learning how to be happy again, and it’s slightly rough, but Ace thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard.
Nancy shakes her head at him as she unlocks her car. “Yeah, that’s what it is.”
“See, you agree. ”
She opens her mouth to say something else, but is interrupted by someone calling Ace’s name. They both turn to see Thom waving him to the entrance.
She waves to him as she gets in her car. “I’ll see you later.”
With a nod, he waves back. And as she drives away, and he turns to his father, everything within him feels lighter.
ii. there, or, where the relationship deepens
When Ace was young, his mother would read him bedtime stories, folklore and fairytales and all the stories children are told. It made him grow into the type of person who draws comfort from between the pages of a book, finds truth in every fable, and hopes for the best because—despite some of the more morbid classics he occasionally enjoys—most stories have happy endings.
It’s only natural that his ideas of love would come from stories too. Ace likes to think of the classic romances, the way two people can want each other so wholly, can ache to have their love accepted, can say so much with just one touch. He’s always believed in that, has looked for that in every relationship he had, and so he let them grow stale every time it didn’t measure up.
He’s thinking about that as his shift ends and he looks down at a text from Amanda, asking if he wants to hang out when he gets off of work. And he’s staring at Amanda’s name and he’s thinking about love, but he’s remembering earlier today, when he had been inspecting the newspaper pieces on Amanda’s mom's painting, after they’d gotten the shroud back. He’s remembering when Nancy had come up to him, had smiled that small smile that he can never look away from and she’d replied, “I know you too.” He’s remembering when her hand had grazed his back as she rested it on the back of the chair he’d been seated at.
As if on cue, Nancy exits The Claw’s front door. He pushes off of the railing and turns to her.
“Hey,” she says, voice pleasantly surprised, and he preens at the look in her eye, like she wanted to see him but hadn’t realized it until she saw him. “I thought you’d gone home already.”
He shakes his head and raises his phone. “I was catching up on notifications first.”
She nods as she moves to stand next to him. “Right, it makes sense that Horseshoe Bay’s best hacker is so highly sought after.”
He contains his grin as he answers, “I’ll have you know, hacking is only the beginning of my many talents.”
It seems unconscious, the way she takes a step closer to him, and he understands that, because it’s the same for him. It's almost as if, in the instance of a blink, they go from standing across each other in a room to being only an inch apart, like some magical spell that takes place anytime they’re near another.
She grins up at him. “Many talents like, say, dishwashing and karaoke?”
Ace shushes her as he takes a look around. “You guys promised you wouldn’t bring that video up again.”
“I can’t resist! Your performance of “The Phantom of the Opera” was the most memorable thing I’ve ever encountered—and I’m including the ghosts and everything else.”
“Well, try your best to forget it.”
“Okay, for you I will.” Nancy hoists her bag higher on her shoulder. “But I can’t offer guarantees when it’s not something I actually want to forget.”
And this time he can’t help but smile back. Before he can say anything else, his phone beeps. He looks down at it to see another text from Amanda.
He’s not sure what Nancy sees on his face, but she asks, “Big plans?”
For some reason, he finds himself not wanting to tell her about Amanda, not wanting to talk about anyone else. But he can’t lie to Nancy, not even by omission. He gives a small shrug. “Amanda wants to hang out.”
Nancy nods. “So, yes.”
Looking down at his phone again, Ace ponders for a moment. Thoughts of Amanda shift to thoughts of Gil, of the way Nancy had looked when she’d been talking to Gil only a few hours before. “What about you? Are you going to meet up with—Gil?” For some reason, Ace finds it hard to say Gil’s name, and there’s a slight burning pressure in his chest as he waits for Nancy to answer.
But she shakes her head. “Nope. My big plans include going home and watching rom-coms with Bess over some pizza.” She pauses for a moment before continuing. “I guess I feel…like maybe I should take the whole Gil thing slow.”
The pressure in Ace’s chest lightens slightly. “I think you’ll have more fun with Bess anyway.”
Nancy nods like she agrees, and there’s a look in her eyes as she meets his gaze, like some muffled sort of thought she’s trying to figure out. Then the look passes and she smiles again. She presses her palm into his bicep, her touch warm against him, and he barely contains his shiver as her fingers curl over his skin, over his lucky pullover. “I’ll see you later.”
He nods, and then he watches her leave. He’d always heard the phrase “whisper of a touch,” but he’d never realized what it meant before. He gets it now, how it’s so soft it nearly doesn’t exist, how one has to be paying attention to notice it, how if you do hear it, it stays with you like a ghost, an echo. Nancy has left a million ghosts behind, that trail Ace even when she’s long gone.
He stands there for a moment more before pulling out his phone and replying to Amanda, telling her he’s heading over to her place now. And when he gets to Florence and begins driving, he tries not to think about how all the classic romances describe a soulmate's touch as everlasting.
iii. everywhere, or, where the love comes in
The thing about this big world, and it’s something Ace thinks about regularly, is that no one is ever truly alone. There’s millions and billions of people, all constantly passing by one another, surrounding each other. But sometimes people can look at one another without seeing one another.
No one is ever truly alone, and yet he feels so alone sometimes. He feels it most when he’s thinking about priorities. He constantly tries to show others that they are important, that they matter, because he doesn’t want anyone to feel like he does, because sometimes it’s as though he’s the last priority on anyone's list. And he won’t ask for more, because everyone has their own thing going on, and it feels selfish to burden others, but it’s lonely.
What Ace really wants is to be someone's favorite person, the one they always choose, the one they think of when they think of home. He wants that person to be his favorite person as well. And maybe that’s what every single person wants, because he knows he’s not alone in this feeling. It’s sad that everyone is just another lonely soul unless they are lucky enough to be a partnered soul. He used to wonder if he would ever find his person, but he stopped wondering when he met Nancy.
His feelings for Nancy are what he imagines lying on the shore and having the tide slowly come over him would be like: slow and refreshing and not at all startling to suddenly be submerged in the water, in what he feels for her.
Ace doesn’t realize he’s submerged until Nancy walks up to him after Amanda broke up with him, after getting Amanda’s dad arrested, and after Amanda told him he is a bad person.
He’s leaning against Florence when Nancy approaches. She gives him a soft smile, one that he thinks is just between the two of them, the one that developed quickly, as they both learned that they can always turn to one another in a way they can’t with anyone else. He turns to her now, watching as she comes to stand next to him.
The wind rustles softly, loose strands flying around her from her ponytail, and he thinks she looks like some forest deity that has come to bless him. He’s unworthy of this, of everything she offers, but he’s selfish enough to want to take it anyway.
“So,” Nancy bumps her shoulder against his. “My day was filled with creepy tunnels, but it almost seems like yours was worse.”
A tired smile comes onto Ace’s face. “Is there really anything worse than being chased by a supernatural creature because of a haunted doll?”
She shrugs. “Well, I can’t say for certain, but there always seems to be something worse than the last thing.”
He acquiesces. “That does seem to be the case.” Amanda’s words circle him again, and he looks down at the ground, unable to meet Nancy’s piercing gaze.
Nancy steps closer, though, her shoes nearly brushing against his own. “But—things always seem to get better too.”
When he looks into her eyes again, she continues. “I mean, a few months ago, I was on the fast-track to becoming a hermit who didn’t trust anyone. And you guys made me better—helped me become a better person. Or, at least, you guys make me want to become one. I try every day.”
There’s something shining in her eyes, and he recognizes it for happiness—true joy. It still amazes him to see it, the way her once wayward self has transformed into a more certain person. She still seems to lose her footing sometimes, but she keeps trying. Ace is so proud of her, so incredibly proud, watching her understand just how strong and amazing she is. And here she is, saying he’s partially responsible for it. It’s enough to put a real smile on his face.
She shifts so she’s leaning against the car next to him. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong now?”
With a sigh, he lifts a shoulder in a half shrug. “I got Mr. Bobbsey arrested.” The rest is threatening to pour out of him—that Amanda broke up with him, that she said he’s a bad person—but he holds back. He doesn’t want to talk about Amanda right now.
“Oh.” Nancy seems to think about it for a moment. “And you won’t get in trouble now?”
“No, but…I don’t know.”
She begins to nod, as if she knows what he isn’t saying. He knows she’s girl-detective and an all around observant person, but she reads between his lines like he’s her favorite book that she’s analyzed countless times, and still somehow finds something new in after every read. “Ace, you put away someone who’s done some bad things. And maybe these things are never very clear, and there always seems to be two sides, but you did something good.”
She shifts slightly and her leg presses against his own, threatening to burn him inside out. She looks up at him and he can see the whole sky in her eyes, a whole universe created just for him. “For what it’s worth, I’m on your side. I would have done the same thing.”
Her words don’t cure him, because emotions are never that simple, but it helps temper the storm that was threatening to drown him. Still, there’s some apprehension within him about how he handled things. “You don’t know what I did.”
This time it’s Nancy who sighs. “When the Sandman came, we all had nightmares of our worst fears. Your nightmare was about hurting someone. I already knew you had good morals, and this is just one example of that. I don’t doubt you, Ace. I never will.” She pauses for a moment before continuing, “Sometimes it’s hard to remember the good in the world, but you always remind me of it. You are it."
If Ace is continuing the ocean comparison, this would be something different. This would be like being overtaken by a wave, but knowing to stay calm and not to fight it and a second later taking in that breath of fresh air as his head breaks the surface and the sun shines brightly on him.
Nancy gives him a smile, as if to emphasize her words, and he thinks the sun could never be like this, this warm and bright and striking. He thinks that of her a lot—there are a million things that could be compared to her, but they always lack, because she is always more .
He shifts closer to her, wanting so badly to pull her in, to reveal just how powerful his feelings for her really are, but they’re interrupted by the front door to the Historical Society being thrown open.
“Nancy, you out here?”
Nancy and Ace turn to see Ryan walking down the steps, hand cradling his shoulder.
Ryan smiles as he sees them. “I thought you might have left without me.”
“After you so bravely injured yourself for me? Never.” Nancy’s smile changes then, to the one reserved for her dads, and Ace thinks this one is just as beautiful as the others.
Ryan nods. “Yeah, I’d like that exact phrase repeated to Carson when we get home.”
Nancy’s smile grows as she pulls her keys out of her bag and unlocks her car. “I’ll be there in a second.”
With a wave to Ace, Ryan walks over to the passenger seat. “I’ll see you later.”
Ace calls bye back to him, before turning back to Nancy. She watches her father get into the car and close the door before she meets Ace’s gaze. “I’d better get him home.”
Ace nods. She turns to leave, but he stops her with a gentle hand against her back. “Nancy—thank you. For what you said.” It’s not enough, not nearly the entirety of what he wants to say, but she seems to understand.
“Of course, Ace.”
Then she turns to her car and gets in. Ace watches as she pulls out and drives away. He isn’t sure how long he stays there, thinking about what she says, but he knows that when he gets into Florence, he doesn’t feel so lonely any more.
iv. besides me, or, where the future is
The way Nancy looks at Ace is something that he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to. She is strong, fiercely independent, and ambitious, but when she watches him, the way her eyes soften tell him a story; one he doesn’t think he’s making up. The story tells him that he is all she needs, that she wants him by her side always, that she is capable of changing the world because he builds her up.
Ace never thought someone would look at him that way. Being competent throughout high school, not working harder than he had to and spending all his free time hacking, and then becoming a dish-washer—it meant no one really looked at him in any way, if they saw him at all. Nancy sees everything though, she always has. And it doesn’t mean he’s special for being seen by her too, but she makes him feel special.
The first time she really turned her crystalline gaze on him—he honestly thought he’d smoked too much. Her eyes were sincere, sad, and they reminded him of Alice in Wonderland, the girl whose tears didn’t stop until they created a new ocean. Ace had never really thought about his purpose in life, had just walked around aimlessly, and he always enjoyed making people laugh, but at that moment, he wondered if he was meant to ease her pain, meant to make her smile and keep smiling.
When she begins to heal and smile more, she starts to look at him more. Quick glances, and long ones, and all the ones in between. And of course he notices the way she looks at him—he looks at her the exact same way. Ace has never been one to deny the obvious, to deny his truth, his feelings, and this thing with Nancy is no different. But he sees it in her, that she’s not ready for it, and so he waits. He’ll wait all eternity for her to come to him, because there’s never been anything like Nancy and he knows there never will be.
And when it finally does happen, it’s not in any dramatic fashion, it’s not like everything else in their lives. It happens in a languid way, the sun casting a faded golden glow through the room as they sit next to each other on her kitchen stools, Ace typing on his computer, Nancy reading a book, brow furrowed, one hand constantly raised to push back a stray strand of hair that keeps coming untucked from her ponytail. The next time it falls, he reaches over and brushes it back for her. She turns to him in surprise, watches as his fingers travel down her jaw, gently.
“Hey,” he says softly.
She smiles. “You know I’m in love with you, right?”
The surprise he feels is not at her feelings but that she’s choosing to say the words now. His shock quickly dissipates, leaving behind this feeling that’s more than happiness, and he hasn’t realized he could feel this way, this much.
Ace never knew that love could be like this, like a kaleidoscope of Nancy, of bright moments, turning fast and reflecting through his mind as a combination of every single moment they’ve shared. He adds this moment to it because he wants to remember it, her hair bright against the sun, her eyes shining with true joy, and she’s so beautiful he nearly aches with it.
He nods as he smiles back. “Yeah. And you know I’m in love with you too.” It’s not a question, but a statement. Because she does know; they both do.
She leans over and kisses him, slowly, like they have all the time in the world. And, as he kisses her back, Ace thinks they do have all the time in the world, and so much more.