Shared this little snippet of the 3.01 Nace fic that I’m working on in the discord, so figured I might as well put it here too! Hope y’all enjoy! 🥰
*****
Bess tries her best to cheer them up for a while, chattering on about “Oh, didn’t the decorations work so well for the engagement?” and, “Weren't those hair pins that George’s mom sent just beautiful??” and, “Ooh Nancy, I can’t wait to try that fancy onion dip that Ryan bought! Oh! Did you ever find your sorbet?”
This last question seems to make Nancy’s shoulders slouch even further into herself, which Ace hadn’t thought possible. Bess eventually gives up with a sad, sympathetic sigh, and turns to her phone for distraction. The three of them sit in silence as the sun sinks lower, painting the sky with deeper and more vibrant colors than Ace would have thought possible for a day like this.
He takes a moment to imagine if the festival hadn’t been shut down due to the corpse in the corn maze. They had all planned to stop by after the engagement, before the party. That plan seems like it belongs in a whole other world now, but still; an unbidden image of Nancy appears in his mind’s eye - her hair lit up by this dazzling sunset, laughing at something he’d said and trying not to drop her funnel cake on the ground. The two of them sitting on a hay bale next to a stack of pumpkins, grinning at each other as Bess shrieks and flings a spider off her fancy blazer, and Nick and George continue to lose at balloon darts. The evening that could have been, if not for this latest threat.
He’s lost in this daydream when he feels his arm tremble a bit. No, not his arm, it’s Nancy’s, and one quick glance at her face tells him she’s just barely holding back tears.
Without a second thought, his hand leaves the warm pocket of his coat to find hers in the cold, gently prying her fingers away from where they’re clenched in her other sleeve. He laces their fingers together and gives her hand a reassuring squeeze, bringing their joined hands to rest on his leg. The movement pulls her slightly towards him, and he feels her head drop lightly onto the side of his bicep, her body curled more firmly against his side.
She lets out a deep, unsteady breath, but she’s stopped shaking. He can see Bess giving them a look that’s mostly full of softness, but he thinks he sees a glint of… something. He shakes his head ever so slightly. Bess knows how he is with Nancy; it doesn’t have to mean anything more than it always does. Somehow, that doesn’t sound like as convincing an argument as usual.
*****
