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As Eddie fell out of the ceiling and out of the upside down, Robin couldn’t help but anxiously wait for Nancy to climb out too. Once she knew Nancy was safe, she could relax… or relax as much as one can while fighting a dark wizard who wants to kill them all.
A few moments pass and she has yet to see the curly-haired girl fall from the ceiling, then she hears Steve yelling, and Robin's stomach drops. “Nancy! Nancy wake up!”
The group rushes around the hole in the ceiling and looks up to see Steve shaking Nancy by the shoulders.
Robin is frozen in fear and hears the shouts of the people around her. “Oh god, what do we do!?” “Nancy wake up!” “Nancy!”
“I have an idea!” Dustin shouts over the noise, everyone turns to the boy, “Steve can you- I don’t know toss her up here?”
Robin’s head jerks up at hearing that, “I can catch her” she offers.
Robin walks onto Eddie’s grossly stained mattress braces herself and nods to Steve above her. Steve grunts with effort as he tosses Nancy up, the curly-haired girl falls into Robins's arms but her exhausted legs give out and both girls tumble onto the mattress.
Suddenly Nancy gasps and looks up into worry-filled eyes as Robin lets out a breath, she didn’t know she was holding.
“It’s ok Nance, you’re safe, I got you, I’m not going anywhere, you’re safe,” she whispers into Nancys’ curly hair as the shorter girl starts to sob into Robin's shoulder and clutches onto her like she’s afraid Robin is about to disappear.
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“I’m going to teach you how to shoot.”
Robin lifts her head in surprise at that. “What was that, Wheeler?”
The gang had wandered back to the wheeler’s basement for the night, though no one got much sleep. Now the next morning Robin looks at Nancy in confusion.
“I said I’m going to teach you how to shoot, if… if something happens, I need to know you are all safe. The kids are too young to handle a gun and honestly, I’m not sure if I trust Eddie or Steve with a gun.” Nancy repeats
“I- I don’t know Nance I’m not the most coordinated, I mean you’ve seen me run,” Robin says shaking her head slowly. “Besides we have headphones for you, we know music can stop him, it’ll be ok.”
“No, we don’t know that just- please Robin I need to know you’ll be safe even if I’m gone. I can’t let anything happen to you too. After Barb, I- I never really got close to any other girls, and then you came along. You’re special Robin and, and I can’t lose anyone else.” Nancy looks at the ground, a slight blush on her cheeks. “Please… for me?”
“Ok Nancy, I’ll- I’ll do it for you,” Robin says “I’d do anything for you, Nance.” Both girls turn red and look anywhere but each other, Robin, heart-pounding, attempts to brush past that, smiles, and says, “You know, even though it took me like 6 months longer to learn to walk, I bet I’ll pick this up right away since I’ll have a great teacher.”
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“Here it is,” Nancy says as she places the pistol in Robins's hand.
“Are you sure…” Robin trails off as her hands shake, the cold weight of the handgun feeling strange in her inexperienced hands.
“You’ll do fine besides you have a great teacher,” Nancy replies, smiling playfully.
“Here this is how you hold it-” She walks forward and places her hand on Robin's back and arm gently.
Robin shudders at the touch and hopes Nancy doesn’t notice. Suddenly all she can focus on is the sound of Nancy’s breathing and the smell of her fruity shampoo. Shaking her head slightly, she tries to ignore her heart pounding and focus on the bottles lined up in front of her. Yet, she couldn't help but notice how Nancy’s hands lingered in position longer than she needed to.
As if she could read minds Nancy quickly pulled away looking flustered with a blush dancing across her face.
“Ok and uh now you just aim and then pull the trigger.”
“Got it.” Robin sucks in a nervous breath and pulls the trigger.
“You got it!” Nancy jumps and hugs the taller girl, before seemingly realizing what she’s doing and pulls away.
“Sorry, I uh just got excited,” she says looking awkwardly at the ground.
“Should we try again?” Robin offers trying to break the tension.
“Yeah… yeah, I’ll set up more targets.”
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“Hey, Robin?” Nancy looks over to the girl, they were walking back to the Wheeler house after spending the afternoon with gun practice.
“One more thing, if- if something happens to me with vecna… date Steve. I know you make him happy; I don’t know why you aren’t already but if… if you were worried it may make things weird between us” She gestures to herself and Robin
“It- it wouldn’t I just I know you make him happy and he makes you happy… if I’m not here anymore I want you to be happy together”
Robin stops walking and just stares at the shorter girl as she rambles. “Nance… no I’m not going to date Steve yes, he makes me happy but I could never date him.”
Nancy stops and turns to look back at Robin, the setting sun casting her in a golden light. “What are you talking about why not?”
“He’s… he’s not my type” Robin stares at the ground almost wishing it could swallow her whole to avoid this conversation.
“Well, what’s your type then?”
“Girls” Robin practically whispers with a shaky breath
“What? I couldn’t hear you.” Nancy takes a step closer now standing face to face with only a small space between them
“I said girls” Robin lifts her head, eyes filled with fear and face red. “I- I’m gay Nancy… and I really hope you don’t hate me and this doesn’t ruin everything I-”
Nancy places a hand on Robins's shaking shoulder and stares into her eyes “Hey it's ok… I know this town isn’t great but I don’t hate you and it doesn’t ruin anything nothing’s changed ok”
Robin gives her a shaky smile and nods “ok… thanks Nance and just so you know I’ve only told Steve other than you”
“Ok thanks for trusting me Robin but now let’s head back it’ll be dark soon and I don’t really want to be in the woods at night while vecna is looking for me”
Robin laughs “well now that the great Nancy Wheeler has taught me how to shoot a gun, I’ll be sure to protect you!”
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“Steve, I need to talk to you” Nancy feels all eyes on her from everyone gathered in the Wheelers' basement. Looking around she adds “alone please.”
“Uh ok Nance,” Steve replies looking confused as he gets up from his spot on the couch next to Eddie.
Nancy pulls him upstairs, into her bedroom and shuts the door behind them.
“Everything ok Wheeler? your kind of freaking me out here” he says as he watches Nancy pace frantically across her room.
“Robin came out to me!” Nancy says looking up at him with a panicked look on her face.
Steve raises his eyebrows in surprise, “oh shit ok… but why did you need to talk to me about it?”
“Because she said you’re the only other person who knows and… I’m kind of freaking out”
“What are you freaking out about? This is Robin we’re talking about nothing has changed.”
Nancy just stares at the ground picking at her sweater sleeves.
“Unless… Nance do you like Robin?” he asks softly, Nancy’s terrified look pretty much-confirmed everything he needed to know.
“I- I’m not gay Steve at least I don’t think so I loved you, I loved Jonathon but… I think I love her too. She makes me feel things I’ve never felt before and that scares me so much. She’s incredible, you should have seen her at the psych hospital. She says what she feels and doesn’t care what others think. She’s the reason we figured out music stops vecna, she saved Max. She’s a genius.”
Steve smiled as he listened to Nancy was gushing like a schoolgirl her eyes lighting up as she talked about the other girl.
“Nance you know there’s more than gay and straight right? You can like both guys and girls. That’s what Robin told me anyway when-” Now it was Nancy’s turn to raise her eyebrows in surprise as Steve flushed realizing what he just said.
“Never mind that, my point is you can still love her even though you’ve loved guys in the past. You should tell her it’ll be ok”
Nancy smiles at that but then a new thought crosses her mind. “What if… what if she doesn’t like me?”
“Nancy anyone with eyes can see that Robin is crushing on you.” Steve laughs “I was actually just going to talk to her about that.”
Steve pulls the still anxious girl into a hug.
“It’s going to be ok Nance.”
As they pull apart Steve smirks and adds “Eddie and I will distract the little gremlins so you two can talk. Now go get your girl, Wheeler.”
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“Ok ya little gremlins get in the car we’re going to Family Video; I know none of us are going to sleep again tonight might as well have a distraction!” Steve says to the group as he and Nancy return to the basement. “Eddie you’re coming too someone’s gotta help me watch these nerds.”
Turning to Robin as she starts to get up from her spot on the floor “no no not you Buckley, sorry no room in the car you’ll have to stay here with Nance.”
“Bullshit dingus!” “that’s fine Steve,” both Robin and Nancy say at the same time.
“Let them go Robin we can hang out here.”
“Fine…” Robin says sitting on the couch next to the shorter girl.
“You losers better pick out something good!” she calls as the kids go running up the stairs chatting away about what movie they would pick.
“So, what was with the little chat with Steve about?” Robin asks once everyone else left.
“I uh- I was just freaking out a little bit-” Nancy starts to say before Robin cuts her off in a panicked ramble.
“Oh no I didn’t make you uncomfortable, did I? I’m not good at picking up social queues, and oh god you probably hate me, I’m so sorry I can go-” Robin starts to stand slightly shaking
Nancy reaches out to grab her arm pulling her back onto the couch. “Robin, I meant what I said in the woods I don’t hate you!”
Robin looks at her with eyes tearing up “Then why would you be freaking out?”
Nancy takes a shaky breath and looks at her with the most vulnerable look Robin has ever seen from the strong girl.
“Robin…” she says softly as she moves in closer and then to Robins's shock leans in and gently pressed her lips to hers.
Robin though shocked only takes a moment before leaning in to the kiss, one hand in Nancy's hair the other pulling her closer.
“Wow...” Robin sighs as they pull apart.
“Yeah…” Nancy says slightly dazed but with a shy smile on her face.
They jump apart but only for a moment as they hear the group return from Family Video and come racing back downstairs shouting about the movie that was picked.
In the chaos only Steve notices the girls holding hands and gives them a knowing smile.