a. The foundational architecture — what makes Ronance Ronance
Ronance does not work on instant chemistry or hatred-to-love. It works on proximity, competence, and the slow collapse of misreading.
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Nancy's arc is compressed and avoidant. Her feelings look like irritation, jealousy, and confusion before she names them. She goes out of her way to avoid Robin and cannot stop thinking about her. Internalized homophobia — which has roots in childhood (the Barb wound, below) — makes her read her own feelings as "not that." She thinks it's about Steve. She thinks it's about Jonathan. She thinks she's jealous of Robin's friendship with Steve. She's wrong every time, and the fic lets the reader know it before she does.
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Robin's arc is long, spiraling, and oblivious to Nancy's signals. Robin knows she has feelings for Nancy early. She manages them through humor, through withdrawal, through assuming Nancy could never want her back. She is catastrophically bad at reading Nancy's specific signals — direct flirtation, compliments, physical touch, wearing her jacket, even kissing her — and explains each one away as "just how girls are with each other" or "she doesn't know I'm a lesbian." The obliviousness is not stupidity. It is a specific defensive mechanism layered over genuine neurodivergent difficulty reading social cues.
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The Barb wound connects them and divides them. Robin and Barb were childhood friends before Barb and Nancy became close. Robin came out to Barb first; it went badly. Barb drifted to Nancy and away from Robin. When Barb died, both women lost her — in completely different ways, from completely different sides of her life, and without being able to tell the other. The Barb connection is always in the room even when it's not spoken.
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Jonathan is the fading relationship, not the villain. Jonathan leaving for California opened the space for Nancy to need something she didn't know how to name. His absence is what made Nancy start going to Family Video. He's not evil — he just isn't there. Fics handle this in various ways (they're technically still together but distant, he calls high, he's out of reach), but the common thread is: Jonathan left a hole and Robin started filling it before anyone noticed.
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Steve is the enabling third wall. He is not a romantic triangle. He is the person who sees the situation clearly long before either of them does, who engineers the moments they need, who says "I'm her brother" and means it, and who is actively rooting for them while pretending he isn't. See Section 15 for the full Steve-in-Ronance-fic appendix.