Work Text:
“I’m okay. I’m okay- Robin…”
Maybe Robin’s grip around Nancy was too tight, but it didn’t stop her from almost suffocating the brunette. All she could think of was how she had witnessed Nancy getting cursed…or whatever the hell Vecna had just done to her.
One minute Robin was getting ready to help Nancy get through the gate in Eddie Munson’s trailer, the next…
“Vecna.” She heard Max’s voice echo from above. Nancy’s once blue eyes rolled all the way to the back of her head, trembling slightly as visions and hallucinations were shown to her.
“Nancy? Nancy please- oh my god Nancy please, please wake up, please wake up.”
Call it desperation or friendship or even love, but Robin would’ve done anything to swap places with Nancy in that moment.
“We need some help down here!” She yelled to the group above, her voice going hoarse as her throat felt as if it were closing. “Nancy!” Robin’s now shaky hands gripped Nancy’s small shoulders, as if shaking her and calling her name could save her.
“Nancy please wake up, shit, I- I don’t know what to do, please Nancy…”
Nancy’s state didn’t change. “Music, we need music!” If it had kept Max safe all this time surely it would do the same for Nancy at this moment. “Guys?”
“What kind of music?” Voices shouted back, and if it weren’t for all the adrenaline pumping in Robin’s veins she would’ve been much too overwhelmed.
“She- she likes…” Robin searches her memory. Nancy’s room. Tom Cruise poster. Her desk. Her cassette tapes. “M-Madonna. Blondie, David Bowie! Just play anything, please!”
Robin waits for Nancy to levitate. Her hands in preparation for holding her shoulders down. She waits for Nancy’s eyes to get sunken in, for her bones to snap…but it never comes.
Instead, instant relief.
“Nance- oh!” Nancy’s eyes open, a loud gasp slips from her mouth. Losing her balance, she falls, too weak to stand anymore. Robin’s arms are right there, catching Nancy. “Nancy,” she breathes out. “Nancy oh my god. Nancy.”
She whispers her name like a prayer, a poem of thanks that Nancy was still alive and breathing in Robin’s arms.
Robin could’ve cried tears of joy, engulfing Nancy into a tight hug. “Holy shit,” she whispers. It took Nancy a moment to gather her thoughts, her thoughts that had taken in so much information just now.
She jerked in Robin’s arms slightly, thinking that Vecna had still gotten her, that he was fooling her with yet another hallucination, having one last laugh before he took her life completely. But Vecna was dark and cold. The warmth and love radiating from Robin’s touch was very much real. Nancy melted into the embrace.
“I’m okay,” Nancy says meekly.
“Nancy,” Robin whispers back. She’s aware that the group is watching from above, but she doesn’t care.
“I’m okay. I’m okay- Robin…”
Nancy has to push a little against Robin for her to finally let her go.
Robin’s hands take to Nancy’s face, cupping the smooth skin of her cheeks and neck. “You- Vecna, I…” Robin trails off, shaking her head. Nancy’s eyes close for a brief moment, and the visions are back. She sees young Henry and Dr. Martin Brenner. She sees disfigured bones and blood. Her mother, Mike and Holly, the roads of Hawkins.
She opens her eyes to see Robin, their faces almost touching. Nancy’s eyelids close again, as do Robin’s. She allows their foreheads to touch, basking in the moment. Robin’s breathing slows, and she feels the urge to wrap Nancy in her arms again and never let her go. “I’m okay, Robin. Really.”
“Yeah? Cause you gave me a real fright there, Nance.”
They pull apart and Robin offers her a smile, which Nancy weakly returns.
“Hadn’t noticed,” she teases.
Robin blushes slightly. “I- I don’t know what I would’ve done if you were gone,” she shakes her head. “If he took you I’d, well I don’t know but-”
“Hey.” Nancy interrupts, “I’m here. He can’t get me again, I’m sure of it.”
Robin’s eyebrows furrow. “How can you be sure?”
The moment turns serious. They both remember they don't have any time to stand and hug right now.
Nancy’s stomach drops slightly, flashes of the visions in her mind again. They’d always be here. reminding her of what will be, or what’s to come.
“Because. He showed me his entire plan.”