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She isn't completely sure what possessed her to ask Robin to stay at her place. The kids are all staying in the basement for the night before the Byres go back to California (Joyce and Hop apparently haven't decided if they're going to stay there, but they have to go back for now either way), Jonathan, Steve and Eddie were going bowling for some much-needed stress relief...maybe she just wanted to be around Robin.
Maybe she just didn't want to be alone.
She was surprised when Robin actually agreed, in amongst her rambling response. Nancy had to bite her tongue to keep her from calling the redhead cute.
Which is how they ended up here: with Robin awkwardly hovering by the bed while Nancy sits with her knees hugged to her chest.
"Uh...I could sleep on the floor?" Robin says nervously, "Just need an extra blanket or something-"
"No" Nancy says, far too quickly. She shakes her head for a moment "n-no, you...you can share the bed." She mumbles, hugging herself a little tighter and trying to hide her blush.
Robin blushes too and steps closer "If you're sure? I've uh...I've never really had a sleepover before."
Nancy chuckles a little and pats the spot beside her "You're doing pretty well so far"
Robin sits down with a shy smile, giving Nancy a little bit of space (too much space if you asked Nancy) "Not rambling too much?"
"Eh, I've heard worse." Nancy teases, causing Robin to laugh quietly. "...how're you doing?" She asks after a moment.
Robin shrugged "I've been worse. Mostly healed up. You?"
Nancy almost blurts out the truth, that she's not okay, that she's barely slept but-
"I'm okay. Still tired but...I think I'm okay"
Robin gives her a look she can't quite read, one that drives Nancy to look down from the intensity of it. "I uh...I-I think I'm gonna call it a night"
"R-right" Robin stutters, looking away from her too.
They awkwardly move to lay back to back and it takes everything in Nancy not to turn and curl into her friend. Because that's what they are.
Just friends.
Robin flicks off the light on her side of the bed, and Nancy's stomach twists as the darkness surrounds them. She'd never really been afraid of the dark before the Upside Down, but she feels it now. She can feel her heart race and she genuinely can't tell if it's because of the proximity to Robin, the suffocating darkness or a combination of the two.
She can already hear Robin's gentle snoring by the time she finally, reluctantly falls alseep.
The dark isn't the first thing she notices.
No, the first thing she notices is the sheer, freezing cold that engulfs her. It's like she's jumped into ice water, like she's fallen through a frozen lake and now she's just waiting to drown.
The heavy terror she feels in her chest feels a hell of a lot like drowning.
She tries to move, but finds a thick, dark vine has wrapped itself tightly around her waist, completely rooting her to the spot. She struggles hard against it, but it just tightens it's hold.
"Robin?!" She calls, and her voice echoes back to her in the empty void, "Steve!? Eddie, Jonathan, anyone!?"
"Of course she's the first one you call for." A gurgled, harsh, almost familiar but disgustingly distorted, voice comes from the darkness, somewhere behind her.
Nancy almost vomits, but forces herself to turn her head to look backwards.
The body is barely recognisable anymore. The eyes have sunken to nothing, the skin is far too pale, almost to the point of translucency. The clothes are twisted and hanging from an even more twisted and broken body.
But her glasses are still there, and Nancy could never forget that voice, no matter how wrong it sounds now.
"You'd never forget her the way you forgot me. Would you?" Barb, or whatever is left of her for Vecna to puppet spits.
"I didn't" Nancy practically whispers, a desperate lilt in her voice. "Barb, I swear I didn't forget you. I couldn't!"
"You did." The puppet spits again, "You forgot about me and left me to die down here."
"I didn't." Nancy repeats. "It's...you're not real. You can't be, Vecna's gone!"
"You think your little gang could destroy him?" Barb sneers, "He let you go for a reason, Nancy"
"W-why the fuck would he do that?" God, she wishes she sounded more confident in that statement.
Barb smiles then, a sick imitation of the smile Nancy remembers, all teeth and cracked lips, no smile lines or warmth. Just malice and sadistic glee.
"Because you like her." Barb says, almost singing it "Pretty little Robin."
"She...she's just a friend"
"So was I." Barb pouts "Your little friend, that you left to die."
"Barb I-!"
"I'm going to enjoy watching Vecna take her from you too." Nancy feels her heart stop, "You didn't care about me, so I'm gonna watch you break when pretty little Robin dies because of you too."
"No!" Not Robin, she can't lose someone else, not again.
"Why not?" Barb chuckles darkly "You'll replace her soon enough. With boys or another stupid girl that you're not brave enough to admit you like. And they'll die for you too. Over and over and over again."
"No...no, n-no, this isn't real. This isn't real." Nancy repeats to herself, turning away from Barb and struggling against the vine again and trying to ignore the tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.
It just tightens, and Nancy isn't how she's still breathing, but she fights the vine with everything she has. "THIS ISN'T REAL!" She screams.
And then Barb is in front of her, that maniacal grin right in her face. Only this time, the voice is even less Barb.
"Maybe I'll use this vessel to do it" Vecna says through the corpse's mouth "There's something poetic in your first love killing the newest one..."
"Nancy!"
Nancy bolts upright with a choked-back scream.
"It's alright! You're okay!" Robin is sitting directly in front of her, hands hovering by Nancy's shoulders like she isn't sure if she should touch her.
Nancy frantically looks around: the bedside lamp has been flicked back on and the room is bathed in a soft yellow light. She's practically thrown the quilt off of herself and she can feel herself shivering, from terror or cold she isn't sure and Robin-
Robin is alive, and in front of her and Vecna is gone.
Nancy lunges forwards, fists her hands in Robin's shirt, hides her face in the crook of Robin's neck and begins to sob.
Robin takes a few seconds to react, but when she does, she's so gentle. She wraps her arms around Nancy slowly, one around her waist, the other around her shoulders with a hand going up to cradle the back of Nancy's head. She pulls Nancy closer and carefully manoeuvres them both so that she can wrap the quilt around the two of them.
And then she starts to rock, just slowly. Nancy might not even have noticed it if she wasn't practically on Robin's lap.
"It's okay" Robin assures, softly, "You're okay, he's gone. He can't hurt you anymore."
"N-no-" Nancy gasps out between sobs.
"Yes" Robin states, tightening her hold slightly (nothing like that stupid vine, Robin is gentle and warm and alive) "He's gone, Nance. We stopped him. It's alright."
"Can't lose you too..." Nancy mumbles into Robin's collar "I...Robin I can't lose anyone else!"
If Robin is phased by the words, she doesn't show it. "You won't. He can't get any of us ever again. We're safe Nance, we're safe, it's okay."
Nancy lets out another sob and curls closer, relaxing a little as Robin starts to run a hand through her hair. She shifts so her head rests against the taller girl's chest, an ear just above Robin's heart so she can listen to the rhythm and remind herself that Robin is alive.
"...has this happened before?" Robin asks quietly, when Nancy's sobs have reduced to sniffles "Nightmares, I mean. Because I've been getting them too, God knows anyone that saw what we saw would, and I've been calling Steve to help me with them and-"
"Yes." Nancy cuts off the ramble, the ghost of a smile on her lips as she speaks "Yes, it's happened before...all week. Just...just never like that" she concludes with a shudder.
"Oh. Right." Robin pulls the quilt further over Nancy "uh...d-do you wanna talk about it? I'm not the best with this stuff but it still might help?"
Nancy is quiet for a few moments. "...I was in the Upside Down. I...I couldn't move, there was this vine that was holding me still." She shivers again and keeps her head down. She isn't sure she can look at Robin while she's talking about this. "I called for you, all of you but it was just me. Then...th-then Barb was there."
She feels Robin tense under her, and she feels awful because she knows, she knows that Robin had been friends with Barb before her, but she can't stop herself from continuing "She...I don't know if it was all her or all Vecna or both of them but...she kept saying I'd left her to die. Th-that I'd forgotten her or replaced her with you and that...and then it was Vecna talking and he said he was gonna..." She cuts herself off with another sob "I can't lose you too. Not to him, not to anyone, just...Robin, I can't-"
She's hyperventilating now, and she covers her face with her hands as she feels another sob tear itself from her throat.
"Nance? Nancy, hey c'mon, look at me" She hears Robin's worried voice say, but she can't. She can't look up because that involves pulling away from Robin's hold, and Nancy honestly thinks she might die if she can't hear the steady thumping of the other girl's heart right now.
So Nancy doesn't look up, she just whimpers and grips Robin's shirt tighter.
She feels more than hears Robin's anxious sigh, and then she's being guided to lay down, still tucked safely under Robin's chin, and she feels the blankets being tucked around her.
"Listen to me" Robin says, and there's a shakiness to her voice that Nancy can't quite read, "You're safe. I'm safe. Vecna is gone, you're not going to lose me, okay? What happened to Barb...it wasn't your fault. It was bullshit luck and nothing else. She wouldn't blame you and I sure as shit don't. Okay?"
"...I loved her." Nancy whispers and she isn't sure if she hopes Robin hears her, but she says it anyway "I...I really, really loved her. And Vecna...he said there was something...poetic...in a first love killing the newest..."
Robin's movements cease and Nancy immediately knows she's ruined it. She should've kept her mouth shut, she shouldn't have invited Robin over, she should've stayed in the Upside-
The kiss Robin presses into the top of her head is so light, Nancy is almost surprised she even felt it.
But she does, and honestly she isn't sure anything has ever felt better.
She lifts her head just enough to glimpse Robin's face, and she can't fight the small smile she gets when she sees Robin's faint blush.
"I uh..." Robin stammers, with a small smile of her own "I l-like you too. But...this feels like something to talk about when we've slept and you're less upset and-"
"Robin"
"Hmm?"
"...can we stay like this?"
Robin's smile widens just a touch and she clears her throat, settling back down and running a hand through Nancy's hair again. "As long as you need."
Nancy doesn't remember falling asleep, all she knows is that this time, there's no darkness, or cold or dead friends.
This time, there's just warmth.