Chapter Text
The drive back to Nancy’s house was deadly silent. All of them had crammed into Eddie’s beat up van, beat up themselves and tired to the bone. Eddie was driving, Steve up front next to him, the kids in the back, and Robin and Nancy were tucked into the middle row.
Robin’s head had dropped onto Nancy’s shoulder, her hair spilling over her face and Nancy’s grimy striped shirt. Through the heavy air of the van and the sound of its tires running over Hawkins’ streets, Nancy could hear Robin’s slow, rhythmic breathing. The girl wasn’t asleep, but staying alert like Nancy had learned to do, releasing the tension that had built in all of them over the day’s trials. Dustin was definitely asleep, though, as his soft snores had begun to creep over the van’s low hum.
Soon, Nancy started to give directions to her residence to Eddie. He turned into the driveway slowly -- the slowest anyone had ever seen Eddie Munson drive -- and shut off the engine, leaving only the sound of crickets and Dustin’s muttered awakening. The van’s clock read 3:56. Nancy looked through the window at her house, only the front porch light on. Either her family was asleep, or they had gone out looking for them. Nancy prayed to whatever god there could possibly be that it was the latter. “We’re here, guys,” Steve said softly, turning around in the passenger seat to look at everyone.
Robin lifted her head off of Nancy’s shoulder, leaving it feeling cool and vulnerable. Nancy followed her out of the van. Her muscles were painfully sore, and a phantom pain spread across her back from when she had been Vecna’d and landed flat on the floor of a pool. Without realizing it, Nancy let out a sharp wince, and Robin quickly turned towards her. Wordlessly, she swept her arm under Nancy’s shoulders in support, and Nancy instantly felt a lift from the pressure in her body. She smiled weakly but gratefully at Robin. They began walking towards the front door, followed by their friends.
Nancy felt around under the porch mat for the spare key, her arm still around Robin’s waist. Sliding the key into the lock, she opened the door with care, stepping inside apprehensively. “I’m going to check upstairs for my parents and sister,” she whispered to Robin.
“Do you want me to come?” she offered, her expression genuine.
Nancy shook her head and turned towards the stairs. At the top, she peeked her head into Holly’s room. Her twin bed was empty and the room was still. The same was of her parents’ room. Nancy called down to the others, “Clear.”
The seven other people released held breaths, and the tension in the house seemed to dissolve. Nancy walked back down the stairs to stand on the first one, the group looking up at her. “All right,” she began, trying to resume her businesswoman cadence that she often used in her school newsroom. “We’ll split up the bedrooms. Steve and Eddie, you guys can take my parents’ bedroom. It’s the room on the right at the end -”
“End of the hall, I got it, Nance,” Steve finished, a small smile through his tired voice. She had never seen him so worn out, but it gave her hope when she heard the smirk in his words.
She smiled a bit and continued. “Robin and I will stay in my room. Dustin, Lucas, and Max, you can stay downstairs in the basement. And Erica, you can have Holly’s room.”
“What? Why do I get the baby’s room?” Erica protested, frowning.
Everyone else turned to look at her, eying her height. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay, I get it. Fine.”
“Um, let me know if you need anything,” Nancy finished awkwardly. “Good night, I guess.”
Lucas, Max, and Dustin disbanded from the rest, moving towards the basement’s stairs. Robin touched Nancy’s arm and nodded towards their backs, particularly Max and Lucas’ hands weaved together. Nancy grinned down at Robin, nodding as they shared a triumphant glance.
Nancy then held out her own hand to Robin. “Come on. Let’s get to bed.”
Robin took her hand surely, her eyes meeting Nancy’s in agreement. They walked up the stairs, the boys and Erica behind them. Before Nancy led Robin to the room, she directed Erica to hers while Steve and Eddie disappeared into the master bedroom. Then, finally, she closed her door and turned on a lamp, securing her and Robin in her quiet bedroom.
She turned to face Robin, and somehow butterflies started growing in her tired body. Robin sat on the bed, sighing and staring up at Nancy. Nancy noticed that Robin had a large scratch on her left cheek, messy with dried blood. She walked forward, holding a hand out to cup Robin’s face and turn the cut towards her. “Oh, wow, are you okay?” she asked with concern. Despite the smudged dirt across her jawline, Robin’s skin was surprisingly smooth underneath Nancy’s fingers. She tried to concentrate on the wound before her, however, examining the depth of the cut.
Robin’s eyes were wide, like a deer in headlights. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Does it look bad? Because I totally don’t even remember where I got it from, just the next thing I knew there was blood on my face. That’s what happens when you’re fighting multidimensional bat-creatures, am I right? I’m fine though,” she said hurriedly, moving out of Nancy’s touch. She was rambling again.
Despite Robin’s protests, Nancy was determined to clean her off. “Stay here,” she said, straightening up. “I have a first aid kit in my bathroom.”
She retrieved the tin container and brought it back to Robin, who had stood to look at the scratch in the mirror. “That’s a beauty, huh?” she said, turning to flash a smile at Nancy. She walked back to the bed and allowed Nancy to sit her down. Nancy sat next to her, withdrawing some supplies from the kit.
As Nancy began gently cleaning Robin’s cheek of the blood, she could feel the girl’s blue eyes staring at her. Nancy felt herself flush a bit, but continued working on the wound. “Do you think it’ll scar?” Robin asked, her voice delightfully crackly.
Nancy briefly glanced at Robin’s eyes, curious to see that they were a bit hopeful rather than concerned. “Maybe a little,” she answered, moving her eyes back to the damp cotton ball she was using. “But it won’t look bad.”
“Yeah, I think it’ll actually be kind of hot,” Robin said with a smug laugh. “I’ll look very dashing. Rugged, even.”
Nancy grinned, tossing the red cotton into the trash can and looking at the other girl. “Yes, I believe you will.”
Nancy’s heart skipped a beat as she watched Robin’s cheeks redden. She brought her hand up to touch the injury. “Is that it? You’re not gonna stitch me up or anything?”
Nancy laughed and stood to start organizing the first aid kit. “No, I don’t think I quite have the skills for that. The most I can do is give you a disinfectant to use after you shower.”
“God, Nance, I thought you could do anything,” Robin joked, leaning back on her hands.
Nancy blushed and leaned over to put the box on her night stand. She winced as a twinge of pain shot through her ribcage, and she put a hand to her back. Robin leaned forward with concern. “Are you okay? Is there something I can do for you?” the ginger asked, her debonaire nature gone and replaced with worry.
Nancy shook her head in dismissal, slowly easing herself back to sit beside her. “No, thanks. It’s probably just a bruise or something. I honestly don’t even know if it’s real or not.”
Robin furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”
Nancy sighed, not particularly wanting to relive the moment of her fall again. “When I was being possessed, it felt like I was falling. But it wasn’t my physical body, since I was next to Steve. But in my mind it just felt so real.”
Robin scooted a bit closer to Nancy on the bed. Their knees touched. Nancy found it difficult to concentrate on her back pain, but Robin asked gently, “Want to talk about what happened?”
Nancy took a deep breath, her ribs throbbing. As if waiting to be relived, the memories of her Vecna experience leapt into her mind, narrowing her thoughts until all she could remember was the black. “When I was in between the worlds, the Upside Down and ours, I was falling through this void of total darkness. Until I landed on my back in the Upside Down version of the floor of Steve's pool.”
“Why there?” Robin pressed softly. “Do you know?”
This was the part Nancy didn’t want to express. She didn’t want to reveal her cruelty to her long-gone friend, just when her friendship with Robin was beginning to blossom. She didn’t want to relive her own selfishness that caused Barb’s death. But when Nancy looked into Robin's eyes to tell her that she just wanted to go to bed, she was met with genuine care. Deep blue that told her that she would be all right. That releasing her memories, her feelings into Robin would be met with acceptance. Robin felt safe to Nancy, which is why she began.
“Two and a half years ago, my best friend Barbara disappeared into the Upside Down at my pool. And it was my fault.” The confession was not a weight off of Nancy’s already-aching chest. In fact, she steeled herself for a gasp of repulsion, a bombardment of questions and guilt.
But they didn’t come.
“Nancy,” Robin said firmly. When Nancy didn’t look up from her hands, Robin lightly used a hand to move Nancy’s chin up to meet her eyes. Blue. Safe. “I know that is not true.”
“But it is, Robin,” Nancy protested. “I was up with Steve, and she was down there, all alone and needing me -”
“Hey,” Robin interrupted. “No way it’s your fault. It’s Vecna’s. He’s the one who did all of this, and you had no idea at that time, right? Nance, it was not you.”
Robin sounded so resolute that Nancy began to believe her. She nodded a bit and tried to smile at Robin. The freckled girl’s lips turned up and she reached her hand out to tuck a curl behind Nancy’s ear. Nancy’s breath quickened as she did so, Robin’s fingers lightly grazing her neck before moving away far too quickly.
Robin cleared her throat awkwardly and threw her hands into her lap, staring around the room. As Nancy’s heart began to return to its normal pace, Robin began to chatter again. “Well I must say, I am very excited to be sleeping in such a lovely room. Tom Cruise watching over us, maybe the ballerina box will sing us to sleep?”
Nancy smiled and shook her head. “Oh, shut up. I think I’ll take a shower, okay?”
Robin nodded and threw herself back on the bed, her hands flying over her head. “Yep. I’ll be right here.”
Nancy gave a tiny chuckle and stood up to start gathering a change of clothes, careful not to bend in a way that pierced her back. She shot one last look at the girl on her bed before slipping into her bathroom.
The shower felt amazing. As she washed, Nancy replayed the conversation in her head. How is it possible that Robin seemed to have so much trust in her when they had only really met days ago? And why did that trust give Nancy a tingly feeling all over her skin, one she hadn’t felt since her crush on Jonathan? As she thought, she gratefully scrubbed the dirt and dried slime from her limbs, watching the remains of hell swirl down the drain. She hoped her memories of the place would wash away with it.
Nancy stepped out of the scalding shower and wrapped a towel around her hair as she changed into the insanely comfortable sleeping clothes she had grabbed. Hanging her towel to dry, deciding it was silly to go through her skin care process, Nancy opened the door and let some steam cloud into her room.
“You should take a shower, it feels really nice,” she said to Robin, combing through her curls with her fingertips and walking towards the bed.
“Yeah, I think I will.” Robin pushed herself off the comforter and walked towards the bathroom door. But before entering it, she looked back at Nancy, who was crawling gingerly into bed. “Nance?” Nancy looked up. “Thank you,” Robin said. She hesitated, looking as if she wanted to say more, but then disappeared into the bathroom. Nancy frowned a bit, but still felt her heart warm at Robin’s…Robin.
Nancy lay back into her soft pillows, staring up at the ceiling with the lamp still on. From the bathroom came the sound of water hitting tile as Robin started the shower. Nancy laid still, listening to the water and trying not to replay her near-death experience in her mind. Tried not to think about the way Robin had clutched onto her once she got back to Hawkins, Nancy weak and trembling in Robin’s arms. Tried not to listen to the haunting screams of Barb that she was sure would invade her dreams tonight. Eventually, Nancy heard the water turn off and the bathroom door open.
Out stepped a sheepish-looking Robin, wrapped in only a towel that she clutched to her chest. Nancy’s eyes widened as she stared at her, her breath catching. Robin was standing in her room in nothing but a towel, steam floating off of her reddened, freckled skin, her hair dark and waving over her neck. “Do you have a shirt or something I could borrow?” she asked in her raspy voice.
“Yes, sure,” she replied. “In the middle drawer of my dresser, there should be a big shirt on the top you can use.”
Still-damp Robin padded over to the dresser to pull out a large black t-shirt. “This’ll do,” she said with a formal nod, and took the shirt back to the bathroom.
She soon emerged again, her legs bare, and turned out the bathroom light. She awkwardly walked around to the other side of the bed and Nancy felt it sink a little as Robin hesitatingly put herself under the covers.
The two lay there, staring at the ceiling, in the bright and quiet pink bedroom. Nancy somehow felt like they were two animals, spooked by one another and trying to keep still. Their shallow breaths were the only sounds in the room, besides one or two muffled exclamations from Steve and Eddie at the end of the hall. Nancy hoped that Robin couldn’t hear her heart beating hurriedly in her chest.
Suddenly, Robin said, “So we’re just supposed to go to sleep and pretend everything’s normal now?”
Nancy laughed a bit and finally looked at her, and Robin turned too. Her hair was lightening as it dried, splayed out on the pillow and surrounding her face like a halo. It was a welcome sight to Nancy’s eyes, previously used to the grey terror of the underworld. “Yeah,” Nancy said, her smile falling. “I guess we are.”
Robin shook her head and looked back at the ceiling. “This is so weird. So…will you call Jonathan tomorrow or something?”
Nancy knit her eyebrows. It wasn’t exactly the question that had crossed her mind. She hadn’t really thought of Jonathan since her time with Robin in the library. “I guess so. I mean, isn’t it crazy that we’ve been doing - whatever that was - for the past few days, but he’s been lounging in California, probably being irresponsible somehow?”
“Irresponsible?” Robin asked, sounding doubtful. “From what Steve’s said about him, he seems like a good brother.”
Nancy sighed. “You’re right. He is. I’m just trying to find a reason to…uh…”
“Break it off?” Robin suggested, sounding a bit surprised. Nancy couldn’t help but think there might have been a hint of hopefulness. Nancy nodded, kind of looking ashamed. “Why’s that?”
She squinted a bit at the ceiling. “I don’t know exactly, I guess I’m just…moving on.”
Robin turned her head again to look at the melancholy girl. “That’s good. Moving on is good, especially in our bullshit case. Maybe Jonathan has to go with that.”
Nancy sighed again, fighting the urge to look directly into Robin’s freckled face. “Yeah, maybe. I think I just need to do something to move on. Like…write.”
“Write? Like poetry, to get your feelings out?” Robin asked skeptically.
Nancy smiled and shook her head. “No, like articles. My journalism.”
“Oh, Nance, you want to work?” Robin grumbled, rubbing a hand over her forehead.
“Yeah!” Nancy continued, smiling at the idea. “I’ll just find a normal, pleasant news story to write up and distract myself.”
“If Vecna doesn’t kill you, you surely will,” Robin declared, grinning at Nancy.
“Will you come with me tomorrow? Help me find something to report on?” Nancy asked quickly, finally looking at the other girl. “Be my partner?”
Nancy’s eyes were clear and hopeful. To her joy, Robin nodded, trying to assure Nancy’s obvious care about the subject. “Sure, I’ll come with you Nance. And so the next adventure begins, right?”
Nancy smiled at her, and watched Robin’s blue eyes smile back. “Well,” Nancy sighed, not knowing what else to say. “Good night, Robin.”
“Good night, Nance.”