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Everything is totally fucked.
There’s no coming back from this.
Billows of red smoke are everywhere, scattered like demonic sprinkles on a shitty birthday cake. Robin squeezes her gun like it would grow legs and try to walk away from her, because here, that’s a real possibility. Robin can feel the vines wrap around her legs, crawling up, slow but suffocating. She would scream if she could, but she couldn’t.
Except she’s not in the upside down. She’s sitting on Nancy Wheeler’s bed. There’s no gun in her palm, just a teddy bear whose eyes were pleading for mercy from her death grip. She was simply catastrophizing.
“Robin?” Nancy spoke from the other corner of the bed. Her eyes gleamed with worry, but Robin couldn’t tell what she was worried about. She could be running through ways of letting her down easy, or worrying about the very real psychotic break Robin was seemingly slipping into. One thing Robin was sure of, though, was that Nancy was not going to say “I love you,” back.
Robin loosened her grip on her unwilling victim, Nancy’s innocent, pink, teddy bear. She shook her hair wildly, trying to play cool, before responding, “Yeah, sorry. That was stupid.”
Nancy said something that Robin couldn’t hear as she slipped back into her own thoughts. ‘We had a good run while it lasted,’ she couldn’t help but think, ‘Three months is a perfectly respectable time to date somebody before accidentally ruining the whole relationship!’
There was simply no way of coming back from this. Nancy didn’t love her back, and there was nothing she could’ve done about it. As much as it sucked, because she did love Nancy, she couldn’t force the girl to love her. She wished she would have left the topic alone for at least another week, though, enough time to hit at least four months without royally screwing up. That would make the time it would take to get over Nancy a little more justifiable.
“Robin!? Hello!?” Nancy spoke, joltingly concerned enough to interrupt Robin’s spiral. Her brows were furrowed, but somehow she still looked so soft.
“No yeah,” Robin sighed and started to stand up, “Well um. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I’ll see you around I guess.” She began to make her way towards the door, her hand on the knob when Nancy called after her.
“What the fuck are you doing? Did you even hear me?” She slid her body between Robin and the door, effectively blocking any hope she had for getting out of this deep hole she’d dug for herself.
“No, but I get it, I was just gonna give you your space.” Robin brough both of her shaky, sweaty hands up to the back of her neck as she stepped back from the door.
“Why would I want space?” Nancy questioned, her face looked almost sorry for Robin.
“Because I told you that I… umm.. you know? And you don’t and that’s totally cool! We can like… still be friends and stuff.” Robin went for the door again, hoping Nancy would have the decency to step out of her way so she could make her shameful exit.
Nancy muttered something insulting under her breath, before standing on her tiptoes to pull Robin’s face to her’s. She desperately latched her fearful frown over Robin’s bottom lip. Robin stayed in the kiss for a few moments before pulling back. She could feel her eyes widening, staring Nancy down.
“You didn’t hear me, did you?” Nancy sighed, placing her hands on Robin’s waist, dragging her to the bed and placing herself on it. Robin still stood, looming over her like a freaky, lesbian, horror movie, monster.
“I’m sorry. I started thinking and couldn’t really stop, ya know?” Robin explained, still keeping her hands as far from Nancy as possible.
“What were you thinking about?” Nancy asked, her hands tracing up and down Robin’s sides, picking up her shirt as they moved.
“The upside down. There were vines suffocating me, I couldn’t do anything about it. And then I was just wishing I had waited.” Robin still couldn’t let herself touch Nancy, or she would start to convince herself that Nancy wasn’t about fuck with her and tell her she loved her too. Nancy took a moment to shake her head and smile up at her, though.
“Well I would still love you, even if you were trapped by vines in the upside down, so that’s unrealistic.” Nancy started, “And if you had waited another week you wouldn’t have foiled my plan to tell you that.”
Robin genuinely couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Questions were running through her mind at a mile per minute.
“What? Why?” Was all she could scoff out.
“Because.” Nancy said, like it was the most obvious thing. “Because we saved each other from a pit of monsters. Even if we hadn’t, like if we were worm food right now, I’d still love you. I was going to tell you that next week, take you out and stargaze or something so I could be the one to tell you first.” Nancy looked like she wanted to keep talking, but couldn’t think of the right word to say next.
Robin took the opportunity to interject, "You’re becoming such a sap, Wheeler.”
“I do not want to hear it out of you right now.’ She giggled, letting Robin run her callused fingers through her hair. “And now we have to go out and get you a new pair of listening ears.”
Robin chuckled, looking at Nancy incredulously. She let her hands run from Nancy’s scalp to her jawline, feeling to make sure she was real.
Nancy spoke again, softer this time, more somber. She moved herself out of Robin’s grasp, laying back on the bed but leaving enough room for Robin to lay next to her. “Did you really think I wouldn’t feel the same way? Is there like, I don’t know, something I can do to show it better?”
Robin immediately clamored next to her, rushing to put her arms around Nancy. “No baby, not at all. It’s more me than it is you.” Robin tried to explain, attempting to comfort her in a weird, self-deprecating, way.
“I don’t understand it,” She laid her head on Robin’s chest as she finished her response, “How you don’t realize how easy you are to love.”
Robin couldn’t help but laugh, but stopped the second she looked at Nancy and realized she was fully serious. “I just never pictured someone like you loving me, that’s all.”
Nancy tilted her head, “What do you mean?”
“Like a perfect, gorgeous, smart girl like you actually loves a dorky, stoned, no-good freak like me. Like if someone had told me a year ago that I was in love with Nancy Wheeler and she actually loved me too, I would’ve laughed. I’m still getting used to the idea that someone as good as you could actually want me-” Robin could keep going, describing all the reasons Nancy was too good for her.
“Well get used to it, please. I don’t like seeing you as upset as you were.” Nancy said before she could keep talking. She wiggled her way out of Robin’s arms to face her, leaving a soft kiss on her forehead. With their faces still close, she spoke quietly ”And you may be a stoned dork, but you definitely aren’t no-good.”
“I think I could get used to this, as long as you keep doing that.” Robin giggled. Nancy was the only person who could make her do that. Nancy was the only person that was worthy of hearing Robin display such open joy. Nancy was the only person who got to see her unfiltered enough to giggle.
“I can do that.” Nancy giggled back, locking their lips again. Sensitive and sweet, warm and fiery. Like campfire marshmallows that left their lips sticky, but sticky felt pleasant when it was the two of them.
When they broke apart, Robin asked her through a, now permanent, smile, “Are we still on for stargazing next week? I think I know a place.”
Nancy laughed again, moving her body over Robin’s on the bed, stood on her knees, her legs on either side of Robin’s hips. “Only if you act surprised when I tell you that I love you.” She said, gearing up to kiss Robin again.