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tell me something about yourself (i won't remember)

Summary:

“Robin!” Nancy dropped the axe, it sliced the Demodog in two. “Robin, please tell me you remember.”

“Wh- what?” Robin mumbled, her head was splitting.

“Come on, Robin. The Demogorgon, the tire, the- the…” Nancy trailed off, the desperate look in her eye fading into disappointment. “Robin… I keep reliving my death.”

 

in which Nancy is stuck in a time loop that Robin cannot remember.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

If there was one thing Nancy Wheeler knew how to do, it was save the world. Time and time again, over and over until it was all she knew how to do. Will Byers escaped his gnarly fate from the Upside Down because Nancy had the guts to slice her hand open. An entire car full of children escaped their gnarly fate of being squashed by Billy Hargrove because Nancy had the guts to stand in front of his speeding car. Max Mayfield had clung onto life by a thread because Nancy had the guts to set a building on fire with herself inside. It was seriously badass, the kind of badass that only action movie heroes would have the opportunity of becoming, and the kind of badass that made Robin’s mind completely break when she reminded herself that somehow, by some weird twist of fate, this badass was her best friend.

It didn’t surprise Robin that she wanted to be more than best friends. Because of course she did. The moment she realised her face was red hot and her heart was quickening all because Nancy smiled at her one day, she just had to roll her eyes and tut to herself because, yeah, she had a crush on Nancy Wheeler. Just her fucking luck. 

She didn’t exactly want to play into stereotypes, but come on. What chance did she have? Nancy’s entire room was littered with pink, and little heart shaped earrings and skirts and flowers and Tom Cruise posters. Her dad sat downstairs watching the news and muttering to himself, and her mother gossiped about anyone who might be different. Robin knew girls like Nancy Wheeler, she’d met them a thousand times. And up until spring break of 1986 she hated them, but maybe at the end of the day, they couldn’t help it. Maybe they were just raised that way, close minded and ignorant, and just happened to get lucky enough to not be given a reason to open their minds. Okay, Nancy hadn’t exactly said anything wrong. But she wasn’t going to give her an opportunity to. Not if Robin ever wanted to look at Nancy the same way again. Not if Nancy ever wanted to look at Robin the same way again.

This was all running through Robin’s head while she watched Nancy basically wrestle with a Demodog, as one does. Nancy started ditching her guns a while back, they only did any actual real damage on the bats, and still those things were basically impossible to actually shoot in the air, even for the likes of Nancy Wheeler. She still carried her revolver, even if it left Demogorgons practically unfazed, somehow the weight of it by her waist still let her breathe a little slower. But her main weapon of choice had started to become this ridiculous axe that looked like it belonged to an executioner or something. Which checked out, because Nancy was exactly that. So many monsters, an uncountable amount at this point, all victims of Nancy and that blade.

Maybe it was a little weird that during a full fledged attack, Robin’s train of thought decided to take a detour at the ‘I have a crush on Nancy Wheeler’ station. But in actuality, the train seemed to stop there every five fucking minutes. Robin could picture all the little passengers inside her head, sick and tired of never getting to their destination because Robin couldn’t keep her mind out the gutter. How could she help it? When Nancy lifted that axe with all her might in a way that made every muscle in her arms pop and remind Robin to never challenge the girl to an arm wrestle if she wanted her wrist intact by the end of it.

“Robin, fucking hell!” Nancy yelled, and Robin’s breath was caught in her throat at the horrifying idea that she’d just said all that shit out loud. But instead Nancy was just staring at her impatiently, the axe raised shakily above her shoulders because it was that heavy even Nancy couldn’t quite lift it comfortably. And Robin realised it was now her turn to slam her combat boots into the Demodog’s head, steadying it as it writhed around in pain below her feet, and let Nancy deliver the final blow.

Which she did. Time and time again, until hopefully, one day, she’d stop needing to.

“Any more?” Robin asked, scanning the trees around her for any signs of life.

“We’re good.” Nancy dropped the axe. “You okay? You kind of zoned out.”

“Uh, yeah. Just… got lost in thought.” Robin admitted.

Nancy scoffed. “Must be a good thought if it makes you miss all the action.”

“A… complicated one.” Robin said.

Nancy hummed, Robin couldn’t tell what the hum meant. “Don’t let it distract you.”

God, she was like a PE teacher sometimes, barking orders and showing up everyone else. Thank god no one had given her whistle, or else she’d use it so many times she’d do even more damage to her already shaky hearing that Nancy refused to admit to. But Robin knew what came after the barking orders, the order Nancy wouldn’t say. ‘Don’t let it distract you. I can’t lose you.’ ‘Don’t be an idiot. I can’t lose you.’ ‘Stop shaking and shoot the damn gun. I can’t lose you.’

Nancy couldn’t lose anymore people, and that was the only reason Robin needed to keep her train on the right track. “I won’t.”

“Good.” Nancy replied, kicking the leaves below with her boots. “Do you wanna… hang out tonight?”

“Is slaughtering demons in the woods not hanging out?” Robin asked.

Nancy let out a tiny whimper, like she couldn’t decide on the answer, or like she couldn’t decide on Robin’s answer. That was the thing about Nancy, she sliced monsters in half and shouted at people when they got too stupid, but would always go quieter than usual when she was forced to actually talk about anything other than whatever crazy Hawkins conspiracy theory was on her mind, or where the next patrols should be, or what Vecna had planned next. All that shit was easy to Nancy. But Robin’s light sarcasm seemed impossibly difficult. And Robin’s train of thought was derailed and barrelling back towards the ‘I have a crush on Nancy Wheeler’ station because it was all so endearing.

“It… isn’t not hanging out.” Nancy decided on her answer. It felt carefully crafted.

Robin laughed. “Yes, Nancy, we can hang out.”

“Can I paint your nails again?” Nancy asked. “I feel like I can do better this time.”

“I will see it when I believe it, but sure.” Robin said. “I don’t get it. How do you fuck up my nails so bad, but yours are always fine? I feel like you do it on purpose.”

“I don’t!” Nancy exclaimed, suddenly looking embarrassed. “…My mom does mine. At Saturday breakfast.”

“Okay, that’s adorable.”

“She started when I was little.” Nancy explained. “I chewed my nails a lot, and she said it was an incentive to get me to stop chewing. Except it didn’t work, because now I just end up with super chipped nails by Saturday and, like, a tiny amount of nail polish coating my stomach.”

“The inside of your stomach is probably a work of art by now.” Robin said, before realising how insane that sounded. 

“My autopsy could be in the Louvre.” Nancy giggled.

They finally reached the car by the clearing, a beat up old pickup truck Nancy had ‘found’ when Ted Wheeler started demanding to know why his car was coming home with dents every couple days.

Unfortunately, the car was pretty much on its last legs, and it was only about two minutes of driving until a tire burst on Cornwallis. Nancy cursed under her breath, pulling to the side and stepping out. There were repair kits in the back, Nancy wasn’t stupid enough to leave home without one. She was stupid enough to only just barely know how to fix a tire, though. Robin could feel the frustrated aura around the car as Nancy messed around with the tire, and Robin could’ve offered her help, but she was just as useless, if not more useless than Nancy. Instead she took to watching the streetlights. Her biology teacher had told her once that lights aren’t supposed to be spiky, and she probably had an eye condition she couldn’t remember the name of. But that couldn’t possibly be correct, because Robin’s eyesight was good. And she’d asked Nancy, and Nancy had said lights are supposed to be spiky. She wasn’t sure who to trust, the biology teacher or Nancy’s blind confidence.

Robin knew she had good eyesight, because she could see the thing skulking about in the trees by the road. She knew she had good reaction time because she banged on the car door and yelled for Nancy to get inside within split seconds. And she knew Nancy had shit hearing because Nancy did not hear her. And, she knew the Demogorgon had good hearing because it did.

The monster darted towards the car, Nancy looked up in time to see it and grab the axe, but not in time to stop it. Robin didn’t dare watch, instead she jumped out on the other side of the car in time to watch the axe slice through the Demogorgon and the monster fall limp onto top of Nancy.

Robin kicked him off and watched as blood spilt from Nancy’s abdomen. She dropped to her knees and Nancy wasted no time shoving her hand into Robin’s, wrapping her fingers around Robin’s hand.

“Oh my god…” Robin swallowed back nausea. “It’s gonna be fine, Nancy, okay? You’re gonna be fine. Let me just…” she ripped off her jacket, balling it up and pressing it against Nancy’s stomach. It wasn’t a work of art. Nancy cried out in pain like she’d never done before. And she had done before. When that bat attached itself to her back, when that dog had swiped at her shoulder, when she’d accidentally slammed her hand in the car door. But this was different. This cry seemed to rip from her throat involuntarily and never stop.

Robin pulled her onto her lap, preparing to lift her into the car, but Nancy gasped out words, along with blood. “P- please, stop. It hurts.”

“I know, okay? I know, baby, we gotta get you to the car. T- to the hospital.” 

Robin felt the fingers in her hand let go. It ended too quickly. It didn’t end quickly in the movies. The action stars sacrificed themselves and went out in fiery explosions as a crowd sobbed from a safe distance. They don’t die on the side of the road in the arms of Robin Buckley.

She got to the Byers. It was the only place she knew to go to. She’d wrapped Nancy in a blanket and put her in the back and shakily driven for the first time in years. It went fine. The last time she had driven it went less than fine. Maybe it was because she thought about it too much. She wasn’t thinking about driving tonight.

The rest of the night went by in flashes.

Flash. A hot cocoa was place into her hands. They were stained with blood. The mug was now stained with blood. Robin apologised for staining Joyce’s mug. She felt angry. Nancy should be the one apologising. 

Flash. She was in bed. El’s, she thought. She made sure her face was turned to the wall, there was nail polish on the chest of drawers by the bed. Robin thought about Karen doing Nancy’s nails every Saturday breakfast. She’d wondered if Karen would miss it.

Flash.

“Ah!-” Nancy dropped the axe, she crumbled to the floor, and Robin’s train of thought ground to a halt.

“Nancy!” Robin leapt forward, getting down to Nancy’s side and grabbing at her cheek, turning her face so she could meet her eyes. They weren’t white and glazed, but they were terrified and panicked and clutching her stomach. “Nancy, what’s wrong?! Are you hurt?!” Robin asked, scanning Nancy’s abdomen for any sign of blood. There wasn’t any. “Breathe for me, okay? Just breathe… in… out. That’s it.” Robin watched as Nancy’s breathing slowed. “What happened, Nancy?”

“I… I don’t know.” Nancy whimpered, wrapping herself around Robin’s neck. It wasn’t dissimilar to when Nancy would have visions, watching the world be torn apart and her family die. Had Robin really been so distracted that she’d missed another one?

“Alright.” Robin picked the girl up, too shaky to stand on her own. For some reason it felt like something Robin should’ve done already. “I’ve got you. Let’s go home.”

Nancy refused to drive. Instead Robin had to take the wheel. She’d felt like she’d done it recently, but given how awfully she was driving, clearly she hadn’t.

Something ran out into the road, Robin thought it was a deer, she slammed on the breaks and missed it by a hair. But it wasn’t a deer, instead the creature towered up to its full height. Robin glanced at Nancy through the rear view mirror, expecting her to jump into action, like she usually did. But she just cowered lower in her seat. As if she was scared. And yeah, it was a Demogorgon. But this was Nancy. She wasn’t supposed to be scared of them anymore.

The Demogorgon broke through the glass. It seemed to miss Robin entirely. She squeezed her eyes shut, clamped her hands over her ears, but that didn’t stop the scream from seeping through. And then, a gunshot, coming from the revolver Nancy now had in her hand. It turns out, in close combat, guns actually didn’t do too bad. 

Robin didn’t dare touch the scene in the back. She didn’t want to pull that thing away and see the state Nancy was in. She knew it was bad. She knew because Nancy stopped crying so quickly.

She was asleep. Robin could tell herself that. Then it might be true. Robin didn’t say a word on the drive to the Byers. Nancy didn’t, either.

Flash. Hot cocoa was pushed into Robin’s hands. The mug wasn’t stained. Why did Robin think it was stained?

Flash. She was in El’s bed. She couldn’t take her eyes off the nail polish. 

Flash.

“Fuck!” Nancy stumbled backwards. She dropped the axe, Robin’s train of thought ground to a halt. Nancy was hyperventilating, something had shocked her, hurt her. 

“Nancy, are you okay?!” Robin stepped forward, and Nancy wasted no time in throwing herself into Robin’s arms.

“It keeps happening, why does it keep happening?” Nancy cried out, the Demodog cried out at her feet. Robin ignored it. 

“Why does what keep happening?” Robin asked.

“The- the Demogorgon!” Nancy said, but there was a Demodog by her feet, and Robin wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. “It- it keeps getting me, why does it keep happening?”

“Hey, hey, look at me.” Robin lifted Nancy’s chin to meet her eyes. “We’re gonna get through this, okay? The world will be okay, you will be okay.”

“No!” Nancy pushed Robin away from her. “Th- the Demogorgon, on the road. W- with you and… and it killed me. Twice, Robin. It killed me twice and you were there and tried to pick me up the first time and it hurt and- and…”

“Okay, okay, calm down.” Robin said, completely out of her depth at whatever breakdown this was. Had she gotten so distracted she’d missed a Vecna vision or something? “Explain. From the beginning.”

And Nancy did. And it was unbelievable. But even so, she let Nancy drive home the long way round and told her to take a breath whenever she could see Nancy holding it with anticipation. The tire blew out two minutes in, and Nancy refused to get out and fix it so instead Robin opened her door, but then Nancy slammed it shut and wouldn’t let Robin get out, either. Neither of them knew what to do next. But they couldn’t just sit there and wait for whatever weird prophecy Nancy had to come true. Robin stepped out, she grabbed the repair kit from the back and did her best attempt at fixing the tire, while Nancy stood above her with the axe.

She watched the front of the car. The Demogorgon had always come from the front of the car before. Nancy forgot they’d turned the other way off Randolph Road this time. She didn’t see it coming.

Robin held Nancy in her arms. She didn’t pick her up.

“P- please.” Nancy stammered out. “Please remember next time.”

Flash. The mug was stained with blood. It wasn’t the first time it had been stained.

Flash. She watched the nail polish. Robin thought about Saturday breakfast.

Flash.

“Robin!” Nancy dropped the axe, it sliced the Demodog in two. “Robin, please tell me you remember.”

“Wh- what?” Robin mumbled, her head was splitting. 

“Come on, Robin. The Demogorgon, the tire, the- the…” Nancy trailed off, the desperate look in her eye fading into disappointment. “Robin… I keep reliving my death.”

Nancy was sick of it. Robin understood why. If it was her, she’d be sick of it, too. So instead they waited in the woods. Which… objectively was a bad idea, and both of them sort of knew that. But hey, what was another death, right? Robin was scared as hell. More scared than Nancy. Maybe Nancy was getting used to it by now. Robin wasn’t. She’d never done this before. Except she had.

“So, did I miss anything else? In these… alternate realities.” Robin asked, trying to swerve the conversation away from Nancy bleeding out in front of her.

Nancy shrugged. “We talked about nail polish, in the first one.”

“Nail polish?” Robin raised her eyebrows.

“I asked if I could paint your nails again tonight.” Nancy explained. “I said I could do a better job than last time.

Robin laughed. “I will-”

“-Believe it when I see it.” Nancy cut her off. “Then you ask me if I’m doing it on purpose because mine always look good.”

“Previous Robin is smart.” Robin commented.

“My mom paints them every Saturday breakfast. She’s done it since I was a kid, because I’d chew my nails.” Nancy winced, rubbing her temple.

“You okay?” Robin asked. 

“Just a headache.” Nancy said. “Although, it is a little concerning.”

“More concerning than you dying a bunch of times?”

“Yeah.” Nancy said. “More concerning.”

Robin didn’t dare add to the conversation. She didn’t want to know Nancy’s thought process, she didn’t want to know the weird way this thing whole thing might be slowly scrambling Nancys brain.

A figure screeched in the distance. Nancy got the axe ready. Her arms were tired. She’d done this three times already, she couldn’t really do it a fourth. It was a learning moment, for sure. Robin used the learning moment as a way to ignore the blood seeping out from her best friend. Like, okay, her body was reset, she’d wake up uninjured but the energy would still be gone. The more times the cycle would happen, the more tired Nancy would get, the less chance she’d have of winning a battle she’d already lost over and over again. Robin didn’t know what to do with that information, Nancy was too dead to process it, and fuck, she should’ve said all of this out loud because now she wouldn’t be reminded of it when everything rese-

Flash. The mug was stained with blood. Robin had a second to think.

Flash. The nail polish was by the bedside. Saturday breakfast, Karen would paint Nancy’s nails to stop her from chewing them and- fuck it. Saturday breakfast, Saturday breakfast, Saturday breakfa-

Flash.

“-Saturday breakfast!” Robin yelled. Nancy sliced the axe into the Demodog.

“What?” Nancy breathed.

Yeah, what? “I- I don’t know. I truly have no idea why I said that, I think my train of thought was going crazy and I got distracted and-”

“-My mom paints my nails every Saturday breakfast, she’s done it since I was a kid.” Nancy told her.

“…huh?”

“You’re remembering.” Nancy smiled.

It was creepy. To know this previous Robin had somehow, some way, taken control of current Robin. It was her, yeah, but it was creepy.

“And you’re sure you remember nothing else?” Nancy asked for the billionth time.

“Nope. Nothing. I don’t even remember anything, I just felt compelled to say it.” Robin told her. Nancy looked sad, Robin was scared that was all she’d start feeling. “Hey, tell me something about yourself I won’t remember.”

“As long as you don’t scream it in the woods next cycle.” Nancy laughed.  “Uh… I used to do ballet.”

“Shut up, you’re lying.”

“Swear on my life.”

“That means nothing.” Robin laughed, it felt weird to laugh. “How old were you?”

“Seven-ish. Up until, like, fifteen. I wasn’t super into it, but… I don’t know, it was fun.” Nancy reached for a spot below her neck, she thought Robin didn’t notice.

“Why did you quit?”

“After Barb…” Nancy sighed. “It just reminded me of her, I guess. It’s stupid, it’s not like she even did ballet. But she’d come to all my recitals and shit, even back in middle school. First time I did one without her, I think I just realised it wasn’t the same without her watching me. I don’t know, maybe that’s the only reason I kept at it in the first place.”

“So Barb could watch you?”

Nancy glanced up at Robin, then back at the leaves below, picking at them and ripping them apart. “Yeah.”

“The necklace.” Robin pointed at the empty spot. “She gave you it?”

Nancy laughed breathily. “Current Robin’s smart, too. Seventh grade, I twisted my ankle during a big recital. I hated myself, I thought I ruined the whole thing. I guess she gave me it to make me feel better.”

“Why did you want her to watch you?” Robin asked, because none of this would have happened in an hour.

“You know why.” Nancy replied, because Robin wouldn’t remember this in an hour. She paused. “You called me baby.”

“What?”

“The first time I died. You held me in your arms and you called me baby.” Nancy winced. “I- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t remember that, it’s… it’s not. I haven’t really been thinking about it until now.”

“What do you think of it?” Robin asked, now also picking at the leaves.

Nancy hesitated, she met Robin’s eyes. “Do it again this time.”

The Demogorgon came, as Robin presumed it always did. Nancy was running out of fight, she could barely get the axe to her waist. It didn’t take long before she was in Robin’s arms again. Robin breathed through the fear coursing through her body, she kept her eyes fixed on Nancy’s, not lowering them to see the blood. “It’s okay. It’s okay, baby, don’t be scared.”

“R- Robin.” Nancy choked out. “I’m g- gonna kiss you next time. Okay?”

Robin nodded, she laughed through the pain. “Enjoy next Robin’s reaction.”

Nancy smiled, there was blood on her lips. “Remember that.”

Flash. The mug was stained with blood. Nancy was going to kiss her, Nancy was going to kiss her.

Flash. Robin watched the nail polish. Nancy was going to kiss her, Nancy was going to-

Flash.

Nancy sliced the Demodog in two and let the axe drop to the floor. Robin saw it coming, she saw it coming and she had no idea why. But Nancy’s lips met hers and it felt right and for some reason she wasn’t caught completely off guard. She could even lean into it, without thinking, but then she did start thinking. And fuck, maybe Nancy was a mind reader or something because as far as Robin could remember her last train of thought was about how fucking hot Nancy Wheeler was.

Nancy pulled away, it took a long time. “Explanation?”

“Yes, please.”

The explanation was more than her mind could take. She’d sat in these woods before, she’d had this conversation before and somehow the only piece of information she’d taken from the previous four times was Nancy really wanted to kiss her. It was a good piece of information, to be fair.

Nancy looked tired. Robin wanted to make it better. “Tell me something about yourself I won’t remember.”

Nancy laughed, a joke Robin didn’t get. “Something new, or something I’ve already said?”

“Something new, so you don’t get bored.” Robin replied.

“I… I don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t think anyone would.”

“I always know what to do. I have to know what to do.” Nancy said.

Something screeched in the distance. Nancy lifted the axe. She couldn’t even get it out the Demodog.

Robin made sure to kiss her goodbye. Negative one hour, the shortest relationship ever achieved. She couldn’t repeat it, she couldn’t force herself to remember the kiss or the confession or any of that because she had to remember something else.

Flash. The mug was stained with blood. Make sure it isn’t next time.

Flash. Robin watched the nail polish. Protect Nancy, protect Nancy, protect Na-

Flash.

Nancy dropped the axe, Robin picked her up before she fell. She looked tired. She looked so, so tired.

“Nancy… are you okay? What’s wrong?” Robin asked.

Nancy told her… slowly. But by the end Robin was sat upright, wringing her hands together as she processed everything. Nancy was laying in the leaves, her eyes half shut and breathing slow. 

Robin couldn’t start a conversation. She had no time. And anyways, it had already started a long time ago. “I think about you a lot. About you luring the Demogorgon, facing off with Billy, going into the Creel house and setting it on fire. I always thought it was really badass.”

Nancy smiled weakly. “You were there for that last one.”

“I wouldn’t have been if you weren’t.” Robin admitted. “You know how to save the people you love. But, Nancy… throwing yourself in front of danger isn’t exactly the best plan to keep yourself safe.”

“They’re just kids.” Nancy replied. “I have to protect them.”

“I don’t know how this is happening to you. If it’s Vecna, or divine intervention, or a really fucked up dream. But I’m betting every cycle, you’ve thrown yourself in front of that Demogorgon right?”

Nancy shook her head. “Not the second time.”

“Well, second time’s a fluke.”

“What else can I do? I have to stop it, I have to break the cycle.” her voice was small, she couldn’t hurt a fly.

Robin ran her hands through Nancy’s hair. “No, I have to.” she lifted Nancy’s chin, kissed her gently on the lips one last time, for the first time, and stood up.

The figure screeched in the distance. Robin kept her strength as the Demogorgon strode towards her. She raised the axe to her shoulders. She didn’t know she could do that. She didn’t think she’d ever tried. She timed it perfectly, lowering the axe as the Demogorgon reached out for her, splitting the monster in two and letting it flop unceremoniously on the floor.

Robin dropped the axe. “Nancy, Nancy! I did it! Holy shit, I did it.” She turned around, Nancy was limp. “No, no, no, no.” She dropped to the floor, shaking Nancy hopelessly. “Come on, wake up for me, baby, please. You can’t do this anymore times. Wake up… I’ve got you. Just wake up.”

Flash. The mug wasn’t stained. Robin kind of wished it was.

Flash. Robin watched the nail polish, and then rolled her eyes and turned to the wall.

Flash.

“Robin, fucking hell!” Nancy yelled out, eyeing the screeching Demodog below impatiently.

“Give me the axe.”

“What?” Nancy asked frustratedly. 

“Give me the axe!”

Nancy was surprised by this sudden outburst, Robin was surprised by this sudden outburst. She raised the axe, slicing the writhing Demodog in two. Once it was dead, she turned back to Nancy, who looked completely bewildered.

“I truly can’t explain that.” Robin sighed. “Just, I don’t know… let me do the heavy lifting sometimes, okay?”

Nancy scowled, but if anyone could convince Nancy Wheeler, it was Robin. “Okay… weirdo.”

Robin dragged the axe behind her as they walked back to the truck. “You know, I was thinking we could hang out tonight. With the Byers? You could paint my nails again, I think El has some nail polish. I… don’t know why I think that, but she might!”

“I’d like that.” Nancy replied. “I think I can do better this time.”

“I will see it when I believe it, but sure.” Robin said. “I don’t get it. How do you fuck up my nails so bad, but yours are always fine? I feel like you do it on purpose.”

“I don’t! …My mom does mine. At Saturday breakfast.” Nancy paused. “Are you a mind reader or something? I swear I was gonna ask you if I can paint your nails anyways.”

“Weird.” Robin said. “Uh, there is something I wanted to tell you. Something you probably deserve to know. Later, when you paint my nails.”

The tire blew out two minutes into the drive. Robin held the axe while Nancy fixed it. Nothing came. Robin wasn’t sure why she expected something to.

Nancy did not do a better paint job. Which was fair, because Robin had spouted out ‘I’m gay and I really like you’ before she could think not to. She didn’t get it, she really didn’t get it because one hour ago she’d been utterly terrified to tell anyone, especially Nancy. And now she felt… elated.

Nancy tilted her head like a confused puppy, and then smiled. “I really like you, too.”

Robin leant forward into a kiss. It was her first kiss, but it felt like second nature. “Fuck, that’s what kissing feels like?” Robin closed her eyes in shame. “Terrible thing to say after a first kiss, I know.”

“That’s what kissing’s supposed to feel like? There. I did you one better.” Nancy grinned. “Robin?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna live this day over and over again.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Notes:

sorry if this is nonsense it's another 4:30am fic from yours truly. but let me know if you enjoyed! this was less of a 'I'm gonna write something good' fic and more a 'let me see if this is even possible fic'. I've just never seen a time loop in the pov of the person who isn't in the time loop and I think that's fun.