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Robin doesn’t know when this little crush started.
Okay, that was a lie. She knew when it started.
That day in the library down in the basement archives going through newspaper after newspaper trying to find something about Victor Creel with Nancy Wheeler of all people.
When the two first arrived, Robin was teasing Nancy about what the policeman had told her back at the trailer park in an attempt to lighten the mood, but only seemed to make the shorter girl more annoyed than anything, an observation the taller girl pointed out.
“Did I come off as mean or condescending or something?” Robin had asked her, a strange sense of nervousness building up in her chest as she rambled.
“No.” Nancy had replied almost instantly, still facing the front desk and ringing the service bell on top of the desk.
“Really? Because you seem annoyed.” Robin responded, albeit more bitchy than she had intended to sound.
Nancy just shot her a glare in response before she continuously rang the service bell until the librarian emerged from the backroom to give them the key to the basement.
After nearly three hours of dead end leads and constant reminders that Robin and Steve are platonic with a capital P that nearly made Nancy yell at Robin to shut up, the duo had finally found a concrete lead that they could follow and alerted the others about their findings with Robin calling Nancy a genius. Because she was. Totally not because she desperately wanted to get the shorter girl to like her. Definitely not.
Oh, who was she kidding? After their little escapade while they visited Victor at the mental hospital, Robin had begun to feel a small infatuation towards the other girl.
It started out like how many of Robin’s past crushes did. She felt a pang of nervousness whenever Nancy was near her, her heart racing each time she swore that Nancy was looking at her was all normal and expected. But then it started to get worse.
Anytime Nancy talked with her when the taller girl had least expected it, even if it was a simple “hello,” Robin would always stutter out a response, her face heating up each time. When Nancy had high-fived her back at the hospital after Robin’s epic monologue, Robin had instantly missed her soft touch, a deep ache nestling inside her chest.
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Nancy noticed something strange when the group had all recuperated at the Wheeler's house.
They were down in the basement; Lucas comforting Max after her encounter with Vecna the day previous, Steve and Dustin were having a quiet discussion about something that was only talked about in hushed whispers, Robin was sitting at the desk Max wrote the letters to everyone day previous, trying to piece things together as Nancy was upstairs in the kitchen making tea for everybody to help them relax and calm down from the events of the previous day.
After a few minutes, Nancy descended the basement steps holding a tray of tea. Robin had always thought of her as a priss but realized that her personality was the complete opposite but her movements with how carefully she walked down the steps in order to keep the tray from spilling over and breaking the cups. It was quite admirable to Robin, who was the complete opposite of graceful.
Nancy walked over to the coffee table and set down the tray, Steve and Max almost instantly grabbing a cup. Nancy then picked up two of the cups and made her way over to the desk Robin was sitting at.
The desk was strewn about with copies of the newspaper that Robin and Nancy had found in the library, some with highlighted and underlined sections while the other papers had what looked to be notes scribbled down.
Or, at least, some of them were notes.
Upon closer inspection as Nancy approached the other girl, she could make out small sentences Robin had scribbled down rather messily, almost like she didn’t want anyone else to read them but her.
Do I really belong here with them?
They won’t like me for who I really am.
They’ve gone through hell. Some of them have even been there.
I’ve done and seen nothing compared to what they’ve had to go through.
Nancy was taken aback by how negative the sentences seemed.
Does she really not feel welcome here? Who is she really? Nancy thought to herself.
“Nancy?”
Nancy snapped out of her thoughts as Robin stared at her with bewilderment on her face and concern in her eyes.
Right. Max said that whoever gets Vecna-ed goes into some sort of strange trance.
“Sorry.” Nancy said as she handed Robin her cup of tea, lilac as she had requested.
Robin took a sip of tea and Nancy swore that she saw the other girl shiver once she finished drinking it.
“Thanks. You make one hell of a tea.” Robin smiled at Nancy, like, genuinely smiled and for some strange reason, seeing that smile made Nancy freeze in place and take in all of Robin’s features.
The freckles that dotted around on her face, her messy hair with strands that stuck to her face and neck, the jacket that she had been wearing constantly the past few days and the pin on the front, her bright, blue eyes that seemed to sparkle whenever light hit them.
“Nancy?” Robin repeated, now genuinely worried about the other girl. “You keep falling off the edge of the world there.You alright?”
Nancy nodded her head in response as she smiled back at the taller girl.
“Yeah! Sorry. Things have just been hectic the past few days.”
Robin snorted. “That’s a hell of an understatement.” She sipped her tea again.
Nancy laughed lightly. “Well, let me know if you’d like any more tea.”
Robin nodded. “I will. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Nancy went over to where Dustin and Steve were sitting and sat down in the chair opposite of Steve, her face beginning to heat up.
Nancy had been with Robin nearly all day and had immediately taken quick notice of her new “partner in crime” as Steve had put it, but nothing had ever made her freeze the way she had just then.
The shorter girl looked up to see Robin with a lopsided grin on her face as she began to giggle to herself. Just hearing her laugh was enough to make Nancy’s heart flutter. Upon realizing this, Nancy began to sink into her chair, covering her face in hopes that no one could see how red she was.
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Despite the too many to count times Nancy and the others had tried to describe the Upside Down to her, nothing could prepare her for the horror that really was this dark alternate dimension.
As soon as she had come out of the gate, Robin had noticed the others were fighting these weird bat-like creatures, three of which were attacking Steve.
She and Nancy attempted to kill the one that had wrapped its tlak around Steve’s neck but another bat had flown towards Nancy and hit her right in the back and attached itself to her, clawing at her while doing so. Robin immediately jumped into action and grabbed the creature’s tail in an attempt to pull it off of Nancy but barely made the thing flinch as Nancy screamed in pain. This fueled Robin to put in as much strength as she could and had finally managed to pull the thing off of Nancy and pinned it to the ground with her foot.
Without missing a beat, Nancy grabbed the oar she was using to defend herself and impaled the creature with it, a dying shriek escaped it as it went limp.
If Robin wasn’t sure about her crush on Nancy, she was certain about it now. Seeing Nancy be such a badass and now with some interdimensional creature’s blood on her face as she reached out a hand to help her up made Robin feel extremely warm. Not just her face, but her entire body felt like it was burning. She really hoped it wasn’t rabies.
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Robin knew fear. She’d experienced the emotion multiple times throughout the past year. She felt it when she finally came to terms with who she was back in freshman year. She felt it when she was held captive and tortured by the Russians back at Starcourt. She felt it when she finally confided to Steve who she really was. Entering the Creel house. Diving straight into the Upside Down.
But nothing could’ve prepared her for the full unbridled terror that filled her when she noticed that Nancy had stopped moving and Steve was yelling her name and she remained unresponsive.
Oh shit, was all Robin could think of before she began to think of a way to help.
“Nancy!” Steve yelled again and again, Nancy remaining unresponsive.
“What do we do?” Max asked, her voice shaky with fear.
Robin looked up once again as an idea popped into her head.
“Hey, dingus!” Steve looked at her. “Do you think you could throw her up here or something?”
“What?!” Dustin yelled at her, his face in complete disbelief.
“You’ve officially lost it, Buckley.” Eddie exclaimed as he paced around the RV.
“That’s the stupidest ass idea I’ve ever heard.” Erica retorted.
Robin looked over at Max and saw that the girl was lost in thought and then looked up at Robin as she considered her plan.
“It’s really the only plan we have. Unless, one of you has a better idea?”
The silence amongst the group was answer enough.
Steve let out an exasperated sigh as he began to lift Nancy up by her legs, the shorter girl draping over his shoulder.
“If she gets hurt from this, it’s on you Buckley.” Steve shouted before he threw Nancy up towards the others.
Even though Max and Dustin had put a mattress down on the floor to cushion each of their falls, Robin stood on top of the mattress, her feet sinking into it, and reached her arms out to catch the other girl.
Somehow, by some miracle of God or something, Robin’s plan worked as Nancy fell through the ceiling and towards the taller girl.
Robin caught Nancy, but the girl’s sudden weight on Robin’s already fatigued body caused her knees to buckle and fell over, grateful for the plush mattress underneath her.
Steve climbed down (or up? Robin didn’t even know) the makeshift rope and hopped down next to Robin who held Nancy close to her, begging Nancy to wake up.
Suddenly, Nancy’s eyes came back into focus as she scrambled around trying to find something or someone real to help ground her into reality. She turned her head and was met with the same sparkling blue eyes that she has been so infatuated with, the same eyes that were currently looking at her, glossy and filled with tears and worry.
Nancy lunged at the taller girl, threw her arms around her and let out heart-wrenching sobs as she buried her face into the crook of Robin’s neck.
Robin was caught off-guard but quickly held the other girl close to her as she rubbed small circles into her back as she whispered assurances into her ear, tears of her own silently falling down her face.
“I’m okay. We’re okay. You’re okay.”
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The group decided to hide out in Eddie’s RV after Dustin, Max and Erica had told the others about the situation that was going on at the Wheeler’s house.
Nancy was still shaken up from her encounter with Vecna as she was staring blankly into space and the images of her hallucination played in her mind.
She could still see Barb’s body entangled in all those vines at the bottom of Steve’s pool, a slug emerging from her mouth as Nancy hyperventilated as all the thoughts she dealt with for the last two years came back to her.
It’s your fault she’s gone. You might as well have been the one who killed her.
Nancy’s fists clenched at her sides as her gaze went up to the ceiling. Despite the group’s best efforts to cover the gate in the ceiling, Nancy could still see movement and pulsing red as the gate closed back up when they had all escaped.
Robin hadn’t left her side ever since Nancy had awoken from her trance. The taller girl had become somewhat of a lifeline for her since she awoke from the trance and collapsed into Robin’s arms.
She didn’t feel safe here.
Robin must’ve been able to pick up her thoughts as Nancy kept glancing up at the gate like it would explode or drag them all back into it. She stood up and held her hand out to Nancy, the shorter girl looking at her confused.
“Let’s get some air. It’s cramped as hell in here.” Robin’s voice was more hoarse than normal and quiet, a tired smile on her face.
Nancy’s expression morphed into one of fear as she glanced outside and saw it was still dark.
“If that fucker even thinks of trying to hurt you again, he’s gonna have to deal with me.” Robin said firmly.
Nancy nodded as she took Robin’s hand (her skin felt so soft and warm despite how freezing the Upside Down was) and reluctantly stood up off the couch.
“Where are you two off to?” Steve asked, eyeing Robin.
She remembers what he told her when she told him that she might’ve had a thing for Nancy.
“I’m not surprised,” Steve said. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. And she looks at you the same way.”
Robin just laughed bitterly at that. “Have you seen the way SHE looks at YOU? She looks at you like you’re all she sees.” Her mind went back to the boat. Nancy looked at Steve with something that she placed as admiration as Steve took off his shirt to dive into the water. Robin had smiled painfully as she looked at Nancy, knowing that she had no chance and looked down at her lap, her smile dropping instantly.
“Rob,” Steve said, his voice gentle and quiet. “The way I’ve seen her look at you…I’ve only ever seen it when she was with Jonathan. Never with me. She looks at you with such adoration that it makes me just want to shove you two together and yell KISS as loud as possible.”
Robin laughed as she looked at Steve, a small grin on his face.
“You really think so?”
Steve shook his head, Robin’s stomach dropping slightly.
“No. I know so.”
“Dingus.” Robin muttered as Steve looked at her with mock offense.
“Just gonna go get some fresh air. Can’t take the smell of weed anymore.”
Eddie looked at the taller girl with what looked like an offended expression on his face, causing Robin to giggle and Nancy to smile.
“Weed? WEED?!” he yelled, Dustin snickering as Max and Steve smiled themselves. Erica had passed out earlier despite attempts to stay awake and telling the others that she was fine and awake.
“First of all, it’s not weed. It’s-”
“Okay, bye.” Robin said as she threw the door to the RV open and led Nancy outside and shut the door, both of their smiles growing as they heard Eddie yelling about how “undrugged” their minds were.
“I’m much more concerned about the fact that he actually knew what the smell was.” Nancy cracked, causing Robin to cackle. Hearing her laugh like that made Nancy’s heart flutter for at least the fourth time in the last hour.
Nancy looked down and saw that their hands were still intertwined. In a moment of brief panic, Nancy let go of Robin’s hand and looked away, a goofy smile on her face as she felt her cheeks heat up. She spared a glance towards Robin and saw her mirroring her actions, but with a hint of sadness and rejection in her eyes, which surprised Nancy.
After a brief few moments of awkward silence, Robin cleared her throat and began to walk forward.
“Come on. I know a good place.”
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Robin had led the two down a small trail outside the trailer park that then led to an empty field that had a scarce amount of trees, was covered in grass and a few flowers strewn about. She smiled at the sight of her favorite spot in all of Hawkins and that it had laid unscathed since the last time she had come here. That time was after the summer of last year.
Robin walked into the middle of the field and sat down. She looked at Nancy and gestured for Nancy to sit down next to her.
Nancy sat down, her gaze fixated onto the ground as Robin stared at her with adoration in her eyes, her stomach doing flips and with a child-like grin on her face.
The way she looks at you…I’ve only seen her look at Jonathan like that.
“Hey.” Robin said, her eyes softening as Nancy turned to look at her.
Robin swore that she could see the same adoration she felt towards the shorter girl mirrored in her haunted yet bright, blue eyes.
Robin gestured towards the sky. “Look up.”
Nancy followed her gaze and was almost blinded by the amount of stars in the sky.
“I found this place when I decided to sneak out one night,” Robin explained, a sense of nostalgia in her voice. “ I didn’t have any friends at the time to go to and I didn’t feel safe going anywhere else in town by myself late at night.”
“Over the years, I’ve only brought people I care about here if they needed to calm down or just needed to escape from their lives and the shitty things they’ve been through.”
“Who else have you brought out here?” Nancy asked tentatively.
Robin held up fingers as she said a list of names
“Milton when he needed to enjoy one of his last days in Hawkins before his family moved away, Vickie when she was having trouble with school and was freaking out about it, Steve over the summer when he was struggling with nightmares and such after all the shit with the Russians…”
Robin looked over at Nancy as she smiled softly at her. “And you to help distract you from the shitty events that have happened in the past three days.”
Nancy looked back at her with a look that was full of love, making Robin’s heart beat in her throat.
“And to also, uh, t-tell you something that’s kind of, uh…” Robin stuttered out nervously, her face heating up as she rubbed the back of her neck nervously.
“W-what I’m trying to say is, uh…”
Nancy just kept looking at her, a confused yet amused expression on her face.
Robin sighed as her nerves grew higher.
Fuck it.
Robin gently cupped the shorter girl’s face before she gently brought their lips together.
It was only meant to be a quick peck but as Robin began to pull away, Nancy had wrapped her arms around Robin’s neck and had pulled her back in, their lips meeting gently once more.
At first, Robin was terrified that Nancy would shove her away and yell at her to leave and hate her. But nothing could’ve prepared her for the fact that Nancy felt the same way about her. Just like Steve said.
Damn that dingus. He was right for once.
Vecna was still out there, haunting every person in Hawkins. The possibility that it could be their last day still lingered in the air and in the back of everyone’s minds. But for only a while, the threat of possible death didn’t seem to bother Nancy and Robin as they held each other close and confided secrets they never told anyone before.
Instead of fear being felt, all that could be felt was euphoria, safety and love between the two.