Work Text:
Most days, Robin and Nancy couldn’t believe their own luck. After breaking up with Steve and then Jonathan, Nancy used to think that her future broke into tiny irreparable pieces along with their relationship, and her dreams of a happy and safe life with somebody that loved her were shattered forever. Her life wouldn’t turn out exactly as she’d pictured it once as a little girl or as she had when she first started dating Steve, but she wasn’t complaining. She’d changed greatly since then, and some of her childhood dreams were closer to qualifying as nightmares nowadays. This, she thought, what she had in front of her, was much better. On the other hand, Robin had spent most of her life complaining about her bad luck, anything from “bee sting” to “being born gay in a small town in Indiana” and passing by “having to work alongside Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington”. It was only recently that she started focusing on her good luck. She wasn’t allergic to bees, Steve ended up being the best friend she could’ve asked for, and… Nancy Wheeler was her girlfriend.
Nancy had a feeling they were pushing their luck by closing and locking her bedroom door when the two of them hung out in her house. But there was just something about Robin’s company that made her unafraid. With Robin, no idea was bad, no dream was unattainable, and no day was long enough for them to spend together. If her parents found out the two of them were together, then so be it. They would figure out what came next together. There was no reason, and no way to be worried, as long as Robin was at her side. It was a feeling so unfamiliar to Nancy that sometimes she almost laughed out loud by herself thinking of how delightful it was to relax and let down her guard for once in her life.
So, they spent a good percentage of their days just like this, locked inside Nancy’s room, with music playing loud enough to avoid someone eavesdropping on their whispered conversations but not too loud to bother either of them. The window was open, with a soft breeze keeping the room at a comfortable temperature for them to find an excuse to cuddle for as long as they pleased. On one particular occasion, Robin was lying on her back on Nancy’s bed, with Nancy resting her head on top of Robin’s stomach, both of them staring at the ceiling in between loving glances at each other, and talking about everything, nothing, and anything in between.
Nancy broke a brief moment of silence to ask, “Can I tell you something without it coming off as… weird?”
Robin chuckled immediately. “Please tell me that’s not a normal thing to ask,” she said, “If I had to ask that question then I wouldn’t end up saying like a good seventy percent of the things I say daily. Which might be good for the general population but dreadfully boring for me personally.”
“Robin,” Nancy interrupted her softly. She looked up at Robin once and then away as she admitted, “I like your hands.”
“Oh.”
That comment made Robin suddenly very aware of her hands. Her left hand was perfectly happy getting lost playing with Nancy’s hair, as it had been for a while. Her right hand, however, had been holding Nancy’s hand, except that every now and then Nancy got distracted or passionate about whatever they were talking about, and then she would start playing with Robin's hands, intertwining their fingers, taking off her rings, and more and more often, she would start to trace the tattoo on Robin’s hand with the tip of her finger. It caused goosebumps on Robin’s skin.
“Is that weird?” Nancy asked her.
“Not at all,” Robin smiled, “If it were, then consider me ‘weird’s number one fan. Because I love this. I love you. And I love when you say sweet stuff like that. It makes me all mushy and soft in my chest, I would say it’s gross but, as I said, I love it.”
In response, Nancy gave her a soft, quiet laugh. It took some time for both of them to get used to the sheer number of words one of them used in comparison to the meaningful silences and looks of the other. But once they got to know each other, they communicated seamlessly despite their different approaches. For example, Robin learned to be patient, and accepted there was no need to fill in the comfortable silence while her girlfriend selected the exact words she wanted to speak.
“I like the way your nails look painted this color,” Nancy said softly, holding Robin’s hand for examination, touching her dark-crimson-colored nails one at a time. “And I think your rings are cool. You could almost convince me you’re not a complete dork.”
“Hey!” Robin protested, without making great effort to hide her amusement, and used the hand in question to tickle Nancy. It had been an incomparable discovery for Robin to figure out that Nancy Wheeler was ticklish like that. Without fail, she could get Nancy giggling and squirming in her arms for a minute or two until they fell back into bed with matching smiles on their faces.
After regaining her breathing, and still smiling a little, Nancy continued talking. “I also love this little guy,” she said, tracing the outline of the tattoo on the back of her right hand toward the side, spreading from under her thumb.
“It’s, uh, silly,” Robin said under her breath.
“What? No, it’s beautiful.”
Robin hummed thoughtfully. She was tense for a moment before relaxing and asking, “Nance, how much do you know about birds?”
Nancy frowned at her and said, “I… know nothing about birds. You’re the one that retains information like… oh my God, is it… is it a robin ?”
“God, I told you it was stupid,” Robin groaned, and covered her face with both hands to hide her embarassment, not taking into consideration that it only gave Nancy a better look at the tattoo. And she loved it.
“It’s not stupid!” Nancy insisted with a smile. “It’s cute, I swear. And it looks really good.” She moved her head off her girlfriend’s lap and sat down cross-legged on the bed beside her. Then she reached out to gently pull Robin’s hands off her face. She was met with the sight of Robin pouting profusely, and Nancy laughed, for several reasons. One, Robin was adorable, and predictable, because she always pouted like that when she wanted Nancy to kiss her. Two, Nancy fell for the same trick every single time . So, Nancy leaned in, and gave a sweet kiss to Robin’s lips. When she pulled back, she stared at her girlfriend’s smile for a moment longer before saying, “Show me the rest of your tattoos.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve seen them all by now, Wheeler,” Robin replied without missing a beat, with a suggestively arched eyebrow and tilted smirk combination that had Nancy blushing on the spot.
“Yes,” Nancy rolled her eyes with the fond exasperation that she always associated with Robin. “But you haven’t actually talked to me about all of them.”
“Right,” Robin smiled, “I didn’t know you were that interested in me, Nance.”
“Oh my God, will you shut up?” Nancy laughed. They had been dating for months already, and all thanks to Nancy being the one to take the first step. Robin’s teasing was just that, a joke, just as much as Nancy’s annoyance. Actually, they were both head over heels for each other. And they knew that.
“Make me,” Robin replied easily, her eyes purposefully meeting Nancy’s.
When it came to kissing her girlfriend, Nancy didn’t need to be told twice. This time she leaned in more slowly. She held herself up with her left hand and placed the other in the back of Robin’s head, guiding her into a deep, toe-curling kiss. When they pulled back, Robin let herself fall back on the bed with a heavy sigh, then… she raised her right leg.
“What are you doing?” Nancy wondered.
Robin nodded toward the foot she was wiggling in the air. The leg of the pants fell down a little to expose “Tattoo number two,” Robin announced. “This one is proudly stupid, I think you’ll like it.”
Nancy shifted a little in bed to face Robin’s body. She held back a smile at the dark blue and purple polka dot socks Robin was wearing, and focused on the patch of exposed skin right above. “An anchor,” Nancy whispered. She wrapped her hand on Robin’s ankle to press her thumb right over the small black silhouette of a simple anchor. “It’s nice,” she declared after a close examination.
“Nice is a synonym for boring, Nancy, you can do better than that. I’m almost offended,” Robin said. Her eyes sparkled mischievously when Nancy turned to look at her with her mouth open ready to protest and defend herself. Robin interrupted her with a chuckle and explained, “It had to be something nice and simple. Steve wouldn’t have dared otherwise.”
“ Steve?! ”
Robin’s entire body shook when she laughed, and it was Nancy’s favorite sight in the world. “You should’ve seen him, Nancy! He was so going to piss himself if that thing continued any longer. Like, he was shaking so bad , I swear his anchor is a little wobbly. It’s the funniest thing in the world, he absolutely hates it, and I’m absolutely going to make him do it again.”
Her words made Nancy shake her head fondly at her. Robin and Steve’s friendship was something fascinating, impressively sweet, and possibly the strongest platonic bond Nancy had ever seen. “I had no idea Steve had a tattoo,” Nancy said.
“Well, his tattoo is in his back,” Robin explained, and slowly her lips tilted with just a hint of mischief that Nancy had grown to love and fear equally, “And I guess you haven’t seen Steve shirtless in a while.”
“My priorities changed,” Nancy replied calmly, sending a meaningful look to Robin. At some point, she took hold of Robin’s hand again, and she was back to idly playing with Robin’s fingers. A sly smile took over her face when she asked, “But babe, why have you seen Steve shirtless so much, huh? Care to explain that, Buckley?”
Robin bit her lip to keep herself from laughing immediately. She shrugged and exclaimed, “He’s just so hot , you know? I can barely help myself around him!”
That was as much as they could take. Both girls burst out laughing at once, doubling over, falling against each other, their entire bodies shaking and their hands blindly grasping for each other while tears accumulated in the corners of their eyes from how hard they were laughing. Robin had sprung to a seating position, and she smiled when she felt Nancy lean more intently against her, relaxing when Robin wrapped her arms around her. While both of them regained their breathing, Robin rubbed Nancy’s back in soothing motions, and placed a kiss on her temple, feeling in heaven when she heard Nancy sigh happily at the contact.
“I don’t think Steve would appreciate you making fun of his suffering to get a matching tattoo with you,” Nancy pointed out after another minute or so.
Robin leaned back on her hands on the bed and agreed, “Yeah. I guess he’s not so bad, is he?”
“You love him,” Nancy insisted with a fond look.
“He’s okay,” Robin shrugged, barely able to restrain the smile that inevitably appeared on her face whenever she talked about her best friend.
“Okay, now, speaking of shirtlessness…”
“ That is not a word,” Robin interrupted with a loud scoff, “I would know. I’m the one in charge of making up dumb words in our relationship. Don’t take my job away from me, Wheeler. Rude!”
Nancy limited herself to rolling her eyes. She knew that if she engaged in that one bait, she would have Robin throwing made-up words are her for half an hour until she caught her just saying words in French, or Italian, or Spanish, and then she wouldn’t even call her out for another fifteen minutes just because she loved listening to her girlfriend go on those endless rants and even more if she got to hear her speak any other language, something Nancy quite admired from her. So, she said, “ My point is … this has to go.”
“Oh?” Robin said, caught off guard for a moment. Her eyes widened and she looked down at Nancy tugging the lapels of her black jacket. “I didn’t know we were playing that type of game,” she said, but it was too late. Nancy had discovered, with no small amount of pride, that she’d made Robin flustered.
“Tattoos. Remember? I want you to tell me about all of them. Now, focus, and take off your jacket, please.”
“Just because you said please,” Robin said, making a leap to place a not very graceful kiss on Nancy’s cheek. “Are you going to take this one hostage too? Because, you know, someday it’ll be winter and I’ll freeze to death because my girlfriend stole all my jackets. I will be dearly missed,” Robin talked while taking off her jacket and unceremoniously letting it fall off the side of the bed.
“Are you always this dramatic?”
“No!” Robin exclaimed, shaking her head in mock offense. Then she looked at Nancy with blue eyes overflowing with playfulness and held her left arm between them with a flourish saying, “May I offer you a bouquet of flowers, m’lady?”
Nancy couldn’t help the laughter bubbling up inside her. “Oh my God…” she groaned, covering her face with both hands for a moment. It was just too much for her, a moment too perfect to face. It was just an incredible feeling, loving and being loved by Robin Buckley. Never, in a million years, Nancy would have had the creativity to come up with an individual as unique and special as Robin, she thinks. And yet, there she was. Nancy was experiencing unbridled happiness like never before in her life. She was having the time of her life exploring parts of herself that she’d thought were impossible. And the greatest reward, her favorite part of it all, was Robin being right there with her, meeting her with a smile at every turn, living that exact same joy, freedom, and comfort that Nancy was living thanks to her.
However, there would be time to get lost in daydreams and extra-sweet thoughts about their relationship later. At that moment, Nancy had to take a deep breath, get a hold of her emotions, and lower her hands from her face. She was welcomed by the beautiful sight of Robin happily smiling at her without a care in the world. Nancy returned the smile and then put all her attention on the tattoo proudly presented in front of her. It was, undoubtedly, the best work of art on Robin’s skin. The lines, the design, and the colors, it was all breathtaking. Nancy swore she could stare at it forever and, in fact, staring at it for a bit too long had been among the hundreds of little moments that had helped her realize her feelings and brought them together.
“It’s gorgeous,” Nancy said. She didn’t waste another moment to start tracing the intricate design on her girlfriend’s forearm. It was a beautiful combination of several flowers among green leaves that looked realistic enough to get lost in. “Did it hurt?” she wondered.
Robin nodded. “Like hell,” she nodded with a small smile on her lips. “Worth it, though. I just wanted to have one really, really beautiful thing with me at all times. And I fell in love with this design. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”
Something along the lines of you’re the really, really beautiful thing I want with me at all times, I fell in love with you, and I wouldn’t give you up for the world , passed by Nancy’s mind, but she chose to leave that for another occasion, or maybe just her diary. Instead, she shifted closer to Robin and eagerly said, “I love it. Which one’s next?”
Robin thought about it for a moment before she moved toward the edge of the bed, planting her feet on the floor and doing her best to brush her hair off the back of her neck. Nancy smiled watching her. She remembered the first time she saw the tattoo on Robin’s neck. Their relationship was still new, and they were well into discovering the wonders of making out with each other. Nancy was having the time of her life kissing Robin’s neck, listening to Robin’s little sighs of pleasure, and feeling her restless hands all over her body. It was distracting, to say the least, but not enough for her to miss the glimpse of a little ink decorating the space on the back of her girlfriend’s neck. She had been too invested in Robin pulling her back for another kiss though, and she’d forgotten to ask about it.
“Can you see it?” Robin asked.
“Yes. Let me,” Nancy replied, and moved forward to sit right behind Robin so she could carefully hold her hair to the side to admire the tattoo there. The sight of it made Nancy smile fondly, and she found no reason not to lean in and place a kiss right there. She was pleased to notice a shiver run through Robin’s body at the contact. “You weren’t lying,” Nancy whispered.
“With what?” Robin replied, her voice already a different pitch, the kind that let Nancy know exactly what she was thinking of, but Nancy wasn’t done with her yet.
“You do believe UFOs are absolutely real,” Nancy said, with barely concealed amusement.
Robin scoffed loudly, stuttered for a moment but finally insisted, “It just makes sense, okay?! Plus, it’s not- it’s not just aliens! There’s, there’s the moon and, uh, stars and cool shit. You know, space is spectacular, it’s, uh, it’s awe-inspiring. You’re just jealous of my tattoo.”
“Yeah,” Nancy said fondly, wrapping her arms around Robin’s shoulders from behind, “it’s out of this world.”
“Oh my god ,” Robin groaned loudly and pulled on her face with the palms of her hands in a dramatic manner that Nancy was familiar with. “That’s the worst joke I’ve ever heard, Nance, how dare you.”
At that point, Nancy couldn’t back her laughter anymore. There was just something about Robin that day, every day actually, that just filled her with some uncontrollable affection for the other girl. “Why do I love you this much?” Nancy wondered with a dreamy sigh.
“Uh, I’m smoking hot and the smartest person you’ve ever met? Duh.”
The two girls shared a laugh at that, of course. But it wasn’t lost on Nancy the layers upon layers on Robin’s words. There was the fact that Robin’s sarcasm so often covered vulnerable and wounded parts of herself. Nancy couldn’t help but also notice that that’s how Robin acted with Steve, more often. With her, she’d started out with a more openly self-deprecating approach. Usually, Nancy appreciated the little signs that they were also genuine friends on top of being a couple, but this wouldn’t do. She felt invincible simply knowing she had Robin in her life, so Nancy made it a priority to make sure that Robin felt the exact same way, as treasured and admired and adored as Nancy truly felt for her.
“You are,” Nancy said, softly but seriously. She placed one gentle kiss on Robin's neck, and then tightened her arms around her, moving their bodies closer in a warm embrace. “I mean it,” she mumbled against Robin’s shoulder.
For a while, they stayed just like that. Robin leaned her head against Nancy’s and, surprisingly, stayed quiet. She simply took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, no doubt taking a moment to really absorb the words, carefully placing them somewhere on a pedestal in her heart, to admire whenever she felt any insecurity creeping up on her again, she could remember that Nancy loved her wholeheartedly for exactly the person she was. And, the person that she was couldn’t stay in that quiet place for much longer.
“Uh oh, Nancy? We have a problem here,” Robin suddenly blurted out, breaking the silence.
“What is it?” Nancy immediately asked, and her body tensed. “Are you okay?”
“I just… Nancy, I suddenly feel… Oh god, I urgently need to… stand up!”
“ Robin!! ”
Nancy yelled, careless of who in Hawkins heard her laugh as her girlfriend managed to jump off the bed, dragging her along on her back. Nancy was crying out her name, demanding to be put down immediately, but she laughed the entire time, she tightened her hold on Robin’s shoulders, she wrapped her legs around Robin’s waist. Meanwhile, Robin laughed right along with her, taking her all around her bedroom, spinning in circles, dancing offbeat along to whatever song had been playing in the background at the moment, carrying Nancy on her back.
Finally, exhausted and happy beyond measure, Robin stopped to let both of them stumble back down into Nancy’s bed. They were out of breath, their cheeks were flushed, their eyes had little tears of joy spilling off them, and they laid side by side holding hands.
After a few more moments of regaining their breathing, Nancy finally said, with mirth still in her tone, “You’re crazy.”
“About you? Yes, absolutely,” Robin said at once, “I mean, can you blame me? Have you seen yourself?”
Just like that, Nancy was back to affectionately rolling her eyes at her girlfriend. “You’re not so bad yourself, you know?” She said, turning to lay on her side so she could look at Robin, and the look of breathtaking affection in her eyes. It inspired Nancy to lean over and place one tender kiss on Robin’s forehead. Her heart jumped in her chest, ecstatic, at the sight of Robin’s closed eyes and blissful little smile for a second when Nancy pulled back. She let the moment last a little longer, and then she said, “In fact, it would make me very, very happy if we… maybe, took this one off, too?”
That got Robin to chuckle. She stalled for a moment, thinking, running her hand through her messy hair, and finally nodded. “Okay,” Robin said, moving up to sit on the bed again, with Nancy following suit. “You know, I don’t do this for just anybody,” Robin added while she pulled her shirt over her head. “You’re lucky you’re cute, Wheeler.”
“The luckiest,” Nancy replied without missing a beat, and added a kiss on Robin’s bare shoulder for good measure. When she pulled back, she was immediately overwhelmed by the sight in front of her. The soft pale skin that felt like home, the adorable freckles that drove her crazy day and night, three more tattoos to study, and the electrifying warmth that took over the depths of her own body when she realized Robin’s bra was already familiar to her. A few months ago, this scenario probably would’ve made her faint. She meant it when she said she felt like the luckiest person alive at the moment. “You’re so beautiful,” Nancy whispered the truest words she knew in the world.
There were goosebumps in Robin’s arms, and her hands were clutching her shirt tightly in her lap. The way Nancy was looking at her made her feel like her heart was beating too fast for her own good, but also like time had stopped entirely just for them. “Are you sure you locked your door?” Robin asked with a nervous smile.
“Absolutely,” Nancy replied, giving her a reassuring smile. “Now… can you tell me something about… this one?”
At Nancy’s touch, Robin couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. She’d been expecting Nancy to go for the two more obvious choices but, full of surprises always, Nancy went for the little bit of ink peeking from the top of her pants at her hip. “Okay, well, uh, there’s not much to say,” Robin looked down at the little heart and arrow resting comfortably on her hip. By now it was so familiar to her that it felt like another freckle. “I just wanted to try something cute, small, and not noticeable at first sight for my first tattoo. You know, to see if I could handle it. It’s not the best one but it’s just as permanent as the rest so I’m fond of it because, like, that’s better than regretting it! Personally, I choose to embrace that dumb little heart with its silly little arrow.”
Nancy nodded along with the explanation, trying to imagine how that day must have been for Robin, and dreaming of the moment when she’ll get to be there holding her hand when she gets a new piece tattooed on her body. “Well, it is cute,” Nancy agreed, then proceeded to not just trace the outline with her finger, but lightly tug at the waist of Robin’s pants as she said, “I wouldn’t say it is not noticeable though. I mean, personally, I’d love to see a little more.”
“Nancy Wheeler!” Robin gasped playfully and swatted her hand away. “How inappropriate of you, young lady! I am more than my gorgeous body, okay?”
That was all it took to reduce both of them back to giggles and leaning against each other for support. “I can’t deal with you, I swear,” Nancy laughed, beyond marveled at the frequency at which Robin could get her laughing like that.
“Come on, admit it, you like me,” Robin joked, lightly pushing Nancy’s shoulder with her own.
“I love you, you dork,” Nancy said, right before stealing one quick kiss from Robin’s lips. It left both of them smiling at each other lovingly. Then Nancy cleared her throat and said, “Alright, I think this is the next one.” She moved her hand to the right side of Robin’s torso, where she let her fingertips skim over the words permanently painted over her ribs, a short paragraph in an elegant font starting just right under her bra. But, before Robin could explain, Nancy said, “Wait. I think… I’ve heard this before.”
“My favorite movie,” Robin announced proudly. “We watched together, right before we started dating. I figured if you hated it then I’d just give up on your ass.” After one more of Nancy-fondly-rolling-her-eyes-at-her, Robin looked down at her body. She could see Nancy’s hand resting comfortably on her tattoo, her thumb caressing her skin delicately. It was a wonder to her, the experience of feeling so comfortable in her own skin to be sitting just like that with Nancy and, judging by a familiar fire in Nancy’s eyes, it was also more than sweet and peaceful to her too. Robin could tell their little exploration was coming to its happy ending soon. Not that she was complaining, if she was reading Nancy’s signs well, which she had gotten considerably better at. But Robin couldn’t let them move on without adding something else. “Seriously though, I was so happy to watch that movie with you,” she said. Then she moved her fingers to Nancy’s chin to tilt her head up so she could meet her eyes. She was strong enough to skip over some joke about it, and still as serious as she could she continued. “And I’m happy to share all this with you. I feel so… lucky, and grateful, that you care and, you know… that you love me like this.”
“Robin,” Nancy whispered her name, caught off guard by a lump in her throat at the unexpectedly emotional words from her girlfriend.
“There’s one tattoo left, Nance, don’t give up on the tour yet,” Robin grinned affectionately at her.
Immediately, Nancy’s eyes snapped downward toward the intertwined words that stood in a beautiful pattern just under Robin’s left collarbone. Nancy could tell most of it was in different languages. It would have been too much to ask her not to touch it. She’d been brushing her fingers over each tattoo, admiring every line and every drop of color. It felt only fair that the last one she got to lean in and kiss once, twice, three times or more until she heard Robin take a sharp intake of breath. “Please tell me about it?” Nancy said softly.
“It’s actually a secret,” Robin whispered back at her.
“Oh.”
“Not for you, dummy. You get all my secrets. Come here,” Robin said.
Robin moved toward the top of the bed, where she let herself fall down comfortably over the pillows and she opened her arms for Nancy to fall right into them. They fitted against each other perfectly.
With her hand on the tattoo right above Robin’s chest, Nancy asked, “Tell me what they mean?”
Nancy was looking up at her with the most breathtaking eyes and sweetest expression on her face that Robin could dream of. So, she did. She wrapped her arms around Nancy, and she leaned in close and whispered the meaning of that secret message she had crafted and designed to wear over her heart for the rest of her life.
The two girls held each other impossibly close. Both of them ruminating over the meaning of Robin’s words, the secret that Nancy now carried with her too, the magic words that neither of them would ever forget.
Eventually, Nancy broke the silence to ask, “Robin, are you going to stay tonight?” Then, pressing her face closer to Robin’s neck and with a hint of shyness she admitted, “I don’t want to let you go.”
Robin laughed softly, and did her best to shift their position so she could still hold Nancy tight against her, but look her in the eye. “Well, you already undressed me,” she remarked playfully, “I can’t exactly go out like this.”
Nancy laughed a little, and placed her hand on Robin’s jaw. “I love you,” she said as she leaned in slowly for a kiss.
“I love you too,” Robin replied, connecting their lips for a kiss that was, not the first and far from the last they would share that day, that week, that year, and for the rest of their lives, if everything went well, which, as long as they had each other, it would always be.