Archive of Our Own

Nancy could remember the first time she had ever seen Robin whilst dropping off Mike and Will before heading in to work late at the newspaper. An alternatively dressed girl, even in the sailor uniform she was required to wear, leaning her elbows on the ice cream counter while rolling her eyes at something Steve was rambling on about behind her. “Whatever Dingus, here’s your chance to try and get some real numbers on the board.”

Nancy remembered her eyes squinting on their own volition, watching this unknown girl smirk in her direction before greeting Mike and Will as they left Nancy’s side towards their other friends who were already wedged into a corner booth.

“Hey, Nance!” Steve had greeted upon seeing her hovering in the doorway, causing the curly haired girl to unglue her eyes from the strange girl and in the sudden direction of the boy she had been trying to keep her distance from. She knew Steve worked here, it was why Dustin always wanted to meet up in the ice cream shop before heading downstairs to the movies.

“Hi.” Nancy said, quickly looking away and towards where Mike and Will had squeezed themselves across from Lucas and Dustin. Mike was looking at her wondering why she hadn’t left already, that familiar glare threatening to peek through as she continued to stand there. He had already insisted she didn’t need to walk them inside, it was embarrassing. “I’ll pick everyone up when I get off work tonight.”

Mike nodded in her direction before turning his attention back to his friends.

She could feel Steve’s eyes still on her, her skin crawling as she noticed the stranger girl now was too. Noticing that Steve was now rounding the counter towards her she quickly blurted out a goodbye, marching out of the shop and past the big front window. She was going to be late to work if she lingered, and she most certainly had no reason to do so. Besides, Jonathan was waiting in the station wagon and she didn’t want him to start to wonder what was taking so long.

Nancy had no idea why the sight of this unfamiliar girl bothered her, of course other girls were going to exist around Steve, especially if they had to work together. It was something about the way she talked to him though that sort of confused her. Normally girls were fawning all over Steve, what made this girl seem so unfazed by his charm? Nancy had most certainly fallen for it just a few short years ago.

She pushed through the heavy front doors of the Starcourt mall, seeing the station wagon idling by the curb and circled the front to slip behind the driver’s seat once more.

“Everything okay?” Jonathan asked, tapping his hands against his knees in tune with the music playing softly through the stereo.

“Yeah, just wanted to make sure they got in okay.” Nancy said, buckling her seatbelt before putting the car in gear and pulling away from the curb.

Jonathan just nodded his head as he so often did, a man of few words as Nancy quickly learned after meeting the boy their Sophomore year. Normally it hadn’t bothered her in the past, when they first got together, but as time passed Nancy continued to try and find a connection between the two of them, refusing to believe that she could come up short in doing so. She clenched her hands tighter on the steering wheel, perfectly positioned at 10 and 2, as the scar on her hand caused a numbness to spread across her palm. She tried to clear her mind, choosing to forget about Steve and that random girl in Scoop’s Ahoy completely.

It wasn’t until she ran into Robin a second time at the mall, did she really consider the other girl to be a problem. She had been looking for Mike all afternoon, her mother saying he had been out since early that morning with the boys, his bike long gone from its spot in the garage.

Nancy was really trying to work on her anxiety, knowing that Mike was just being a kid, and if it weren’t for all of the fucked up shit that still lingered beneath their feet, she wouldn’t be worried about him at all. When she was his age, she never came home before the streetlights came on, spending most of her free time doing her homework and practicing for ballet at Barb’s house. The memory of the redhead forever causing an ache in Nancy’s chest, she stormed through the front doors of the ice cream shop with little concern for who may be startled by her abrupt entrance.

Luckily for Nancy however, the shop was completely empty, probably due to the fact that it was dinner time.

“Ahoy, welcome to Scoop’s, we are currently out of mint submarine chip, and caramel preserver swirl.” A monotone voice called out to her as the bell chimed above her.

Nancy eyed the girl at the counter, feet propped up with a book in her hand, covering her face. The standardized sailor cap sitting beside her.

“Uh, have you seen my brother and his friends at all today?” Nancy asked as she stepped further into the shop, eyes skating over the long legs that escaped from small blue shorts, red striped white socks hugging calf muscles as beat up red chucks pushed off of the counter.

“It’s you.” The girl said, nearly dropping her book in her lap. “Steve’s not here right now if you’re looking for him.”

Nancy’s jaw twitched at the mention of her ex. “I said I was looking for my brother.”

“Oh right, you did say that.” The girl said as she slowly stood to her feet. “No, they haven’t been in here today, but I did see them down in the arcade on my break earlier.”

“Of course.” Nancy said, already turning to leave. Why hadn’t she thought to look there first?

“Hey uh, Nancy right?” The girl’s voice called after her. Nancy still to this day is unsure what made her turn around.

“Yes?” Nancy said, looking the other girl up and down wondering just exactly what she wanted.

“You’re all he talks about you know.”

“Steve?”

The girl nodded, “He’s so much different than how I remembered him in school.”

“I have a boyfriend.” Nancy quickly said, her skin crawling once more at the thought of Steve. Her palms grew sweaty at the girl’s unwavering stare, the heavily smudge eyeliner having to be on purpose Nancy decided.

“Just thought you should know is all.” The dirty blonde said with her hands raised as if she made no offence.

“I’ve got to go.” Nancy said, yanking open the door as the bell echoed behind her. She needed to get the fuck out of this mall.

“She’s so cool.” Dustin’s voice argued from the back seat.

“She’s just a girl.” Mike said with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah, a girl who’s gonna be Steve’s new girlfriend.” Dustin chimed in, “He told me today that he plans on asking her soon.”

“Robin’s way too cool for Steve.” Max said, crossing her arms across her chest in the passenger seat.

Nancy bit back a chuckle at the redhead’s fiery attitude, she knew she liked her for a reason.

“No, she’s not!” Dustin said, “She just pretends to be.”

Nancy looked up in the rearview mirror at where the curly haired boy sat front and center in the backseat.

“Whatever.” Max chuckled, turning away from him. “You know, you’ve got to stop having crushes on girls your friends already like.”

Dustin gasped, whipping on Lucas who was already trying to duck his head. “You told her?! You swore you’d take that to your grave.”

“She asked!” Lucas laughed, “She knows when I’m lying.”

“You know, I don’t really see the big point of this Robin.” Nancy said casually, slowing down at a stop sign.

All four kids turned to stare at her as if she had said something insane.

“You’re just jealous.” Mike said quickly, as if he had been sitting on that one for awhile.

“Jealous?!” Nancy laughed, “I am not jealous of anything Steve does. In fact, I don’t care if he and Robin are dating.” It felt like a lie as it came out of her mouth, but not for the reasons she was afraid of. Jonathan’s face flashed before her eyes, she really felt like she could save things between them. She just hadn’t been looking hard enough, hadn’t given him enough of a chance.

The car went awkwardly silent as all of the kids started staring out of the windows.

“It’s okay, Nancy.” Dustin chimed in finally, “It’s okay to still have feelings for someone you used to love.”

Nancy bit her lip as she turned onto Max’s street first. “Thanks Dustin, but I think you guys should sit out of this one. You wouldn’t understand.” She was really glad Joyce had come to pick Will up early, she didn’t know what she would do if this conversation had made its way back to Jonathan.

Nancy avoided the mall like the plague after that day, dropping Mike at the door and picking him up without taking a step out of the mercury station wagon.

“You know, I’m pretty sure she said yes, in case you were wondering.” Mike said one night after she picked him up late. They had been driving in a comfortable silence for over a mile before he had spoken.

Nancy turned to look at him, no longer small like he once was, but lanky now with an even worse haircut. “You really got to let Mom take you to get a haircut.” She said, changing the subject.

“I’m growing it out!” Mike said, the topic always causing his quick irritation.

“It looks like a mophead.” She chuckled as she flipped on her blinker to turn.

“You’re literally the worst.” He grumbled.

Nancy didn’t hear another word about Robin or Steve until they were coming face to face in the Starcourt mall as her biggest fears came to life once more.

She tried to ignore the way Steve looked at Robin, but the sourness in her stomach told her it was the same way he used to look at her. The problem though wasn’t that she wanted Steve back, no, she had decided that after thinking about him and Robin too many times after laying in bed unable to sleep. Her problems solely lied with Robin. The girl just left a bitter taste in Nancy’s mouth, and she couldn’t figure out how to scrub her out for good.

She hadn’t seen the girl in weeks, but something always made her wonder what exactly she and Steve were doing together. What did they even have in common? Steve liked pretty girls, and it wasn’t that Robin was ugly, far from it actually. It made Nancy’s teeth hurt when she thought about it for too long. She figured it was just because she hated the girl so much for assuming she wanted Steve back. Nancy hated when people assumed things about her.

“Hey Wheeler, long time no see.” Robin greeted Nancy upon noticing her. “This your boyfriend?” She continued on, pointing in Jonathan’s direction as he bent over trying to talk to Will in the aftermath of everything.

Nancy could feel her blood boil, “Why, you interested in stealing him too?” She bit out before she could think it through. Nancy knew it sounded crazy just by the look on Robin’s face.

“What?” Robin started to laugh, “You think I stole Steve from you?” It wasn’t not an admittance, Nancy thought as she gritted her teeth. She wanted to punch the dirty blonde right in her stupid freckled face. Nancy’s eyes flashed a different scene however as she took notice of the split lip that Robin now sported. Her stomach flipped in an unfamiliar way as she quickly looked away from the blood that slowly trickled from the wound. She was clearly coming down from something, a high supposedly that the Russians had put her and Steve under.

Nancy groaned in frustration as the taller girl continued to laugh, folding over to clutch at her stomach as she started to wheeze.

“Are you good?” Nancy bit out.

Robin shook her head, trying to catch her breath. “Take a look at my shoes Wheeler, I’m not dating your ex boyfriend.”

Nancy quickly looked down, staring at the graffiti that adorned the tips of Robin’s shoes, but they were smeared. The only thing Nancy could make out was a caricature of a face. “Whatever, I can’t deal with this right now.” She said, turning away from Robin and back towards what was familiar.

The rest of the summer went smoother, but now Jonathan was on the whole other side of the country and it worried Nancy just how much she didn't think about it.

“Are you ready for your first day of school tomorrow?” Karen Wheeler asked as they all sat down for dinner that night.

“I guess.” Mike sulked as he pushed around the peas on his plate with his fork. Unlike Nancy, he had been doing much worse since the Byers had moved away and taken Eleven with them. She was unsure what upset her brother more, the fact that his girlfriend was gone or his best friend.

“I have a feeling this year is going to be a better year.” Karen said with a hopeful smile, because it had to be, right?

Nancy didn’t see Robin again until Mike was begging her to take him and Lucas to Hawkins video before their sleepover to pick out some movies.

“Fine, but don’t expect me to pay for it.” She said, grabbing for the car keys.

They picked up Lucas on the way before making their way over to the video store.

“Do you think your mom will let us watch an R rated movie?” Lucas asked as they headed inside.

“We can see if they have Alien back in stock yet.” Mike said before Nancy lost sight of them in the aisles.

Nancy sighed, stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets and began to roam the drama section, her eyes skimming over the movie titles without much of an interest.

“Ah, Dammit.” A voice startled her after a couple minutes of perusing, no longer hearing Mike and Lucas on the other side of the store in the sci-fi section.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Nancy deadpanned upon hearing the familiar voice. She just couldn’t lose her current bad luck streak after getting a B on her math exam last week.

“Nice to see you too, Wheeler.” Robin greeted as she picked up the stack of VHS tapes that had fallen off of her cart.

“You work here?” Nancy asked.

“Steve too, but lucky for you it’s his night off.” Robin said, looking through the shelves to find exactly where her tape needed to go.

“It’s right there.” Nancy pointed to the empty spot next to ‘Deer Hunter’.

“Thanks.” Robin said, “Say, you want a job here? Not that I can offer such a feat but I don’t think Keith would mind, he likes the pretty girls.”

Pretty girls.

“Uh thanks but I think I’m taking a break from real jobs at the moment.” Nancy said, thinking back to the disaster that was her time at the Hawkins Post. “Besides, I’ve got my hands full this year with being the editor of the school paper.”

“Oh, yeah I heard about that.” Robin said, nodding her head as she grabbed another tape and started pushing her cart further down the aisle. Nancy began to follow her, not thinking much as to why.

“I guess congratulations are in order.” Robin continued, before turning to look at Nancy over her shoulder. “Want to rent a movie? Consider it a reward for all of your hard work.”

Why was Robin being so nice to her? Nancy thought, and why was she so flushed? Nancy figured that it was a bit toasty in the store, a heater vent right about their heads.

“I wouldn’t know what to get.” Nancy said, tucking her hair behind her ear, “I don’t watch movies very much.” She didn’t have time to, not with all of the college essays she had been writing lately.
Robin looked at her curiously, not unlike all of the times she had looked at her before. It made Nancy’s skin crawl now, but not in a way that made her want to run in the opposite direction. “Do you ever let loose, Wheeler?”

Nancy’s brows flew into her hairline, disappearing behind her bangs all together. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t watch movies?” Robin blinked at her, “What are you doing in here then? Surely not to see me since you didn’t know I worked here.”

“Why would I come to see you?” Nancy blurted out, feeling her face grow hot.

Robin’s mouth opened and closed, before opening and closing again. It reminded Nancy of a fish out of water, choking on the air that did nothing but poison her.

“I’m just here because Mike wanted to rent a couple movies for his sleepover.” Nancy continued, jutting her thumb behind her. She took a step back, getting ready to turn away all together.

“You should get this.” Robin quickly said, her voice going up an octave.

Nancy turned back to her curiously, her stomach doing that unfamiliar flip once more as she looked at the tape in Robin’s outstretched hand. The cover of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ stared back at her.

“It’s my favorite.” Robin said, her voice a tad shaky as it took on more of that rasp that Nancy found curious.

Something in Nancy changed in that moment she thinks, looking back. Suddenly she was looking at a girl who seemingly wanted to be her friend, and Nancy was in desperate need of those. Ones that she wasn’t attached to romantically. She took the VHS tape from Robin’s hand, their fingers brushing against the cardboard sleeve.

The skin crawling returned as she went to say thank you, but came up empty, her mouth slightly ajar as she tried to force words to come out.

“Nancy, are you ready?” Mike called to her from the front of the store, “We picked out our movies!”

“I’ve got to go.” Nancy said to Robin then, jutting a thumb behind her once morewhere Mike was staring at her impatiently.

Robin nodded her head, “You’ll have to let me know what you think.”

“What?” Nancy’s eyes were still on the dirty blonde, noticing the reflecting light of the rings that adorned Robin’s fingers as they tapped against the top of the cart. Nancy wondered why they were both acting so weird.

“The movie.” Robin pointed to the tape in Nancy’s hands. “I hope you like it as much as I did.”

Nancy hadn’t seen Robin in a while, not since that awkward moment in the video store. She had returned the movie a week later in the outside drop-off slot and fled the scene hoping neither Robin nor Steve had seen her. After that it was only a flash of the dirty blonde here and there in the hallways at school. Nancy had never remembered seeing her before in her day to day life, but now it was like she saw Robin everywhere.

It was like Nancy’s mind was taken over by a stranger as she slowly started to find herself looking for Robin near the band room after school or in the cafeteria during lunch. It wasn’t like she was stalking her or anything, Nancy had convinced herself that it was just human nature to be curious of the girl her ex boyfriend was now dating. She needed to know just exactly what he saw in her, which in turn might tell her just exactly what Steve had seen in her as well.

Nancy couldn’t shake the idea of Robin and Steve together, and she wasn’t sure why it bothered her so much. It wasn’t like she hadn’t moved on with Jonathan, and it most certainly wasn’t because she wanted Steve back.

It wasn’t until one day when Nancy was running late leaving the computer lab after the newspaper club met for their weekly assignment, did she get her answer.

Just as Nancy was shutting the door behind her, she had her feet kicked right out from under her in one big swoop. The clatter of books hitting the ground along with the thuds of two bodies made Nancy grab at her head as she nearly cracked it against the tile floor. “Ow, what the hell?!” She exclaimed, her heart hammering in her chest at the collision.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry.” Robin’s voice rasped out as Nancy opened her eyes to find the taller girl also flat on her ass across from her.

“Did you just run into me?” Nancy asked, blinking stupidly at the other girl. She could feel her chest growing tight as she tried to sit up, trying not to stare at Robin doing the same thing.

“I didn’t see you.” The dirty blonde immediately blurted, “You came out so fast and I tried to swerve around you, but it was too late.” She crawled towards Nancy, hands grabbing at the curly haired girl’s elbows. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

Nancy swallowed, her tongue like cement in her mouth. Robin was so close she could count every freckle that was peppered across the bridge of her nose like stars. She tried to not look at any one detail of Robin’s face for long, fighting the urge that she had to skate her eyes lower.

Nancy continued to struggle for words, heart racing at the sudden touch, flinching backwards away from Robin. “I’m fine.” She finally managed to get out.

“Are you sure? I could get Steve, he’s just outside.” Robin said nervously, looking at where Nancy was still cradling the back of her head. “Did you hit your head? Do we need to take you to the hospital?” The girl continued to blurt out question after question. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Nancy scowled at the mention of Steve, as she watched Robin hold up three fingers. “I said I was fine.” She ground out.

Robin’s brows raised curiously as she leaned back. “Well, you know I could get you ice!” She quickly stood to her feet, brushing off the seat of her pants. She jutted a thumb over her shoulder, “I’m sure Ms Patty would get me an ice pack.” She took a step towards Nancy and held a hand out to help her up.

Nancy just stared at the outstretched hand stupidly as Robin continued to offer it. She wore a ring on every other finger, including her thumb, and the black nail polish was nearly worn off each one of her fingernails.

“Uh, are you sure you’re okay Nance?”

Nance. Like they knew each other.

Nancy stood up quickly, ignoring the head rush as she scrambled to pick up her books. “Don’t call me that.”

“Your name?” Robin asked, confused as she tried to help Nancy collect her things.

It wasn’t just her name, it was the way she had said it. Like they had known each other forever, like they meant something to each other. “Just go, don’t want to keep Steve waiting.”

Robin stuttered, “O-okay. Are you-” Her question was quickly stopped by Nancy whipping her head up to fix the taller girl with a glare that could stop a horse dead in its tracks.

Robin just nodded, buttoning her lips and picking up her bag that she had dropped in the crash. “Well, bye then.” She avoided saying Nancy’s name again before she awkwardly took a step past the shorter girl and speed walked the rest of the way down the hall and out the side door.

Nancy waited to hear the sound of the door click shut before letting out a deep breath. She needed some water and an ibuprofen she decided, heading in the direction of the nurse’s office in hopes that Ms. Patty was in fact still there.

What the hell just happened? She thought to herself as she walked down the hallway, trying to shake the feeling of Robin’s eyes boring into her own. How her hands had felt on her arms, and just exactly how much Nancy didn’t hate the way Robin had said her name.

Okay, she really needed to catch a grip. This meant nothing. She had just wanted to know more about the girl Steve was now dating, and now she knew. The girl was a total klutz with zero consideration for another person’s personal space. Nancy chuckled to herself as she shook her head, Steve really knew how to pick ‘em.

More time passed between Nancy and Robin’s interactions. A whole holiday season went by somewhat smoothly as Nancy buried herself in college essays and newspaper edits. She even took on a position for the yearbook committee, offering to collect all of the senior quotes that would be listed under their pictures. Someone had to proofread them and make sure they were appropriate to publish.

Nancy took comfort in the simple pleasures of such things, hiding herself up in her room and going over quote after quote when she landed on one she had hoped lost itself in the pile she had carried home from school.

Robin Buckley, Senior- “You can’t be what you can’t see” -Sally Ride

Nancy stared at the ripped out notebook paper, Robin’s assumedly hurried chicken scratch was nothing short of perfect for what Nancy had already known about her. The icing on the cake was the old ketchup stain smeared on the corner of the page. Nancy scoffed, remembering that the senior quotes had been collected during lunch period that day. “Of course.” She muttered to herself, throwing the paper into the ‘approved’ pile. So Robin liked space, that was a new fact that Nancy definitely didn’t need to find interesting about the other girl.

In fact, Nancy decided she didn’t care about it at all.

The beginning of the second half of senior year went by rather fast. Nancy was accepted into multiple colleges, but the only one she really cared about was Emerson. That was her first pick, and it was the first letter to come in the mail.

“Oh Nancy honey, that’s amazing.” Her mother, Karen had said during dinner when Nancy had announced to her family that she would be choosing Boston to be her home away from home while she was going to college.

“Well, as long as they’re giving you a full ride, I guess there’s nothing stopping me from keeping you from disappointing your old dad.” Ted Wheeler said from behind his newspaper, something that was becoming more and more regular at the dinner table. Nancy tried to not let it bother her, it wasn’t like she knew he was happy about her decision to go to college anyway.

“Whatever happened to that boy Stephen anyway?” Ted said a moment later, “He was a swell kid, his dad would’ve been a good man to have in the family.”

Nancy tightened her jaw, her father knew that she had been dating Jonathan for over a year now, but she also knew that Ted didn’t like him or anyone from the Byers family for that matter. Nancy stared down at her dinner plate as her parents began fighting once more, the remnants of her food that she had pushed around now in three distinct piles as far away from each other as possible, clinging onto the edges of the china for dear life.

Nancy for a fleeting moment thought about how perfectly her plate resembled her life. The three versions of Nancy that there was, the girl her peers thought they knew, the daughter her parents wanted her to be, and the real Nancy hidden behind a mask just barely keeping itself from slipping.

It wasn’t until spring break when Mike went to California to visit El and Jonathan didn’t come home to see Nancy, did things really start to change.

Of course, as most things go, just when things start to feel like they’re settling down in Hawkins, that’s when the game of chess that they’re all playing gets flipped onto its head.

“I can’t believe we’re stuck down here doing research while everyone else gets to save the world.” Robin groaned as she trudged behind Nancy through the stacks in the library basement, looking for anything that could possibly have the last name Creel on it.

Nancy turned to look at the girl she unfortunately got paired with to do something she normally took comfort in. “This is more important than whatever it is Steve is doing right now.” She bit out, “Besides, how are we supposed to know how to stop Creel if we don’t know why they think it’s him?” She cocked her head to the side as she watched Robin shrug, throwing her hands up in an awkward display that made Nancy want to snap and then shove her up against one of the many filing cabinets that lined the floor behind them and-

“Wait- why did you just mention Steve?” Robin asked, her eyes narrowing in on Nancy’s suddenly very twitchy face, something that was becoming more and more expressive in the short time they had spent together in the library.

Nancy snapped out of whatever image her brain was making, and shook her head with a scoff, turning away from the taller girl and ripped open a filing cabinet drawer to start rifling through. “That’s who you’re talking about right? Steve’s saving the world while you’re stuck down here with me?”

Robin groaned, “Are you seriously still hung up on this, Wheeler?” Wheeler, the new nickname Robin had started calling her after Nancy had asked her not to call her Nance.

“You can stop pretending you’re not in love with him already.” Nancy said, thumbing through one of a hundred manila folders in the drawer. At Robin’s sudden silence she looked up, studying the taller girl’s face for something, anything that would prove her right. Instead Robin just stared back at her, eyebrows furrowed together thinking. “If you think you’re doing it to protect my feelings, believe me I’m over him. I’m with Jonathan.”

“Jonathan, right.” Robin nodded her head, “Yeah, good ol’ Jon.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nancy bit out, slamming the drawer shut and turning the rest of the way towards the other girl.

Robin shrugged, “It’s just occurred to me that your boyfriend isn’t here while the rest of us are trying to save this stupid town from crumbling into the earth’s mantle, and a perfectly great guy like Steve is out there right now putting his life on the line for all of us.”

Nancy blinked at her, jaw tightening ever so slightly. “Jonathan is with Will and Eleven.”

“Yeah, and if they hadn’t run away from this town we probably wouldn’t even be in this situation!” Robin’s voice was raising, the inflection growing more and more similar to a dog’s squeak toy.

“They didn’t run away, they were trying to protect Eleven after what happened to Starcourt.”

“Yeah, cause one girl’s life matters more than the rest of ours.” Robin scoffed, shaking her head as her arms came up to wrap themselves around her gangly frame.

Nancy’s blood was beginning to boil, who was this girl to be saying shit like this? Robin came in late to the game with zero clue as to what the rest of them had already given up and would continue to give up. Hell, the only reason Robin even knew a semblance of what was going on was because of Steve. Stupid fucking Steve. Charming, loyal, and endlessly frustratingly kind Steve Harrington.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Nancy said, “And quite frankly I’m sick and tired of looking at you so you can just go, call Steve and have him pick you up since you’re so bored.”

Robin continued to stare at Nancy, the frustration in her face slowly ebbing away as she sighed, biting her lip. A nervous tick that Nancy very pointedly tried not to notice.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Robin’s gravely voice was back. Nancy ignored the way it made her feel as she watched the taller girl take a tentative step towards her, arms still wrapped tightly around herself. “I shouldn’t have said those things, I don’t even think they’re true.” Robin stopped in front of Nancy, a filing cabinet of space between them. “I just don’t want one of us to be next.”

Nancy quickly looked away, ducking her chin into her chest. She studied Robin’s shoes, no longer the red chucks from a year ago. She never did figure out what Robin had meant about what was on them, assuming that the high the Russians had sent her on had melted her brain.

“You know Steve and I aren’t actually dating right? We’re just friends, like platonic with a capital p.” Robin continued a moment later as she continued to watch Nancy. “Just in case that was causing any extra tension between us.” She tacked on.

Nancy slowly looked up, noticing not for the first time that Robin’s eyes were these crystal blue pools instead of the green she once thought they were. She chewed her lip nervously, thinking back to months ago when they had been that close. “I did like it, by the way.”

Robin’s eyes widened, confusion etching its way across her face. “Like what?”

“Doctor Zhivago.” Nancy said simply as she took in all of Robin, her short blonde hair, her big jean jacket covered in patches, and the lack of half an eyeliner pencil on her face. Nancy felt her stomach sink.

“Oh, right.” Robin cleared her throat as she scratched at the back of her neck, looking nervously away from Nancy. “Did you really?” She asked, her voice cracking at the end.

Nancy nodded her head, a small smile fighting its way onto her lips. “It felt very topical.”

Robin chuckled, “Well to be fair, I was already studying the Russian language before it ever became popular in Hawkins.”

“You were ahead of the curve then.” Nancy said with a chuckle, “Made Russian a more desirable language to speak.”

“What can I say, I’m a real trendsetter.” Robin said, waving at herself in demonstration of her outfit. “Someday you too, might be wearing a jean jacket covered in mismatched patches.”
Nancy giggled once more, before she noticed that all of a sudden that they were much closer to each other than they were a moment ago. She went to tuck an errant curl behind her ear when she froze in her mannerisms. Was she flirting with Robin?

Nancy looked up at Robin who was looking right back at her, blue eyes barely hiding something beneath the surface. “We should keep looking.” Nancy blurted out, pushing herself as far away from the taller girl as fast as humanly possible.

Robin blinked, moving in the opposite direction. “Right, right, totally right you are.”

“We really need to find something about Victor Creel.” Nancy said, scanning a wall of binders with old newspaper clippings sticking out of them.

“Yeah, totally. No more blabbing, got it.” Robin cleared her throat and opened another filing cabinet drawer.

”Nancy’s a genius.”

As Nancy and Robin finally left the library and were on their way back to meet up with Steve and the kids, it was all Nancy could think about. Robin called her a genius, it took everything in her to hold back a smile as they walked quickly back to the station wagon and hightailed it over to the high school.

“You know, it wasn’t just me that figured it out.” Nancy said once she had the car started and they were coming up to their first turn.

“I know, but you put the final pieces together.” Robin said with a shrug, looking over to Nancy with a soft smile, one that Nancy would’ve missed if she wasn’t pretending to look out of the passenger side window for a turn she was doing in the opposite direction.

“Well I guess that makes us both geniuses then.” Nancy said, gripping the wheel with her suddenly sweaty hands. She needed to focus, they had so much on the line right now and the last thing she needed to think about was her stupid little crush she was developing on her ex boyfriend’s new girlfriend.

Robin blushed, clearing her throat. “You think so?”

Nancy could feel her own cheeks warm as she took the final turn into the school parking lot. “Yeah, I mean if it weren’t for you we would’ve never found the article about Victor Creel in the first place.”

She parked the station wagon in front of the school entrance, pulling the keys out of the ignition and turning to her partner in crime. “Ready to find out what exactly we’re getting ourselves into?”

“Academic scholar vibe, really?” Steve threw his hand up in the direction of where Robin was bent down touching everything on Nancy’s dresser that she just told her not to. “She’s giving you academic scholar?”

Robin scrunched up her face, rolling her eyes and turning back to the jewelry box. “You’re such a hypocrite Dingus, by the way your hair is deflating.”

Nancy chuckled to herself, looking between where Steve was now frowning and looking at his hair in the mirror while Robin laughed at him. The curly haired girl smirked, turning back towards her closet and pulling out a particularly pink and frilly dress that she had gotten from her grandmother last Christmas. “No, but she will.”

Robin’s ears perked up at that, turning her head to look at what Nancy was now holding. “You can’t be serious.”

Steve guffawed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Even better, you’ll definitely look like you belong in the asylum with that outfit, Robs.”

“That’s Rose to you.” Nancy said to him as she motioned for Robin to come closer to her. “Now get out, we need to get ready so we can leave soon.”

Steve continued to laugh to himself, holding his hands up and sauntering out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Nancy had figured it was probably best to stick with Robin through the rest of this, rather than get paired up with Steve, which was definitely not a good idea, or one of the kids where she would have to look out for them before even herself. This hadn’t been part of the plan though, dressing Robin up like she was one of her dolls.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” Robin sighed, pulling her shirt over her head in one quick motion, tossing it onto the floor.

Nancy didn’t know where to look, quickly turning away from the taller girl and staring pointedly at the curtains.

“Uh, Nance?”

And there it was again, it made Nancy’s pulse hammer inside her throat. “Yeah?” She managed to squeak out.

“The outfit, I kind of need it if I’m going to get dressed.” Robin chuckled, holding out her hand as Nancy turned back to face her.

“Oh, right.” Nancy was more than sure that she was a bright shade of crimson as she realized that she was still holding onto the hanger that held the outfit she had picked out for Robin.

Her eyes quickly, and without her own permission scanned over the now naked skin of Robin’s chest, trying not to focus too hard on just how well she filled out her sports bra. “He-here.” Nancy held out the dress for her to take, feeling her tongue slowly becoming too heavy to speak.

Robin looked at her with a raised brow, her eyes searching Nancy’s for something before the shorter girl returned herself to the closet. She was granted a moment of peace as she listened to the soft sounds of fabric sliding across freckled skin as Robin got changed behind her. She grew much more interested in the clothes in her closet than she ever had before, flipping through hangers until she found what she was looking for.

“Hey, uh I think I’m going to have to take this bra off, you can totally see it through the dress.” Robin’s gravely voice pulled Nancy out of her concentration, making her swallow.

“You can borrow one of mine.” Nancy said without thinking, grabbing a plain skin tone bra off of its hanger. “Can I turn around?” She asked, staring down at the bra in her hands, biting her lip at the idea of Robin wearing it.

At Robin’s affirmative, Nancy turned around, hoping in her mind that the dress was still on Robin’s body, but it was just loosely hanging around the taller girl’s waist. Thank god she still had the sports bra on, Nancy didn’t think she’d make it out of this room alive if she hadn’t. “Here, try this.” She stuttered, holding it out to Robin without moving.

Robin took a step towards her, staring at the bra unsure, “I don’t think I’m gonna fit in that, Wheeler.”

Nancy swallowed the lump in her throat, “Just try it, we really need to get a move on.”

“Fine.” Robin groaned, snatching the bra from Nancy’s outstretched hand. “But if I suffocate to death, it’s your fault.”

Nancy rolled her eyes then, it was much easier to forget how flustered she was when Robin was actively trying to annoy her. “I’ll take full responsibility, now would you just get dressed already? I have to do your makeup next.”

“My what?”

After the exciting events at Pennhurst, Nancy was finally grateful to get some sleep, even if she was sprawled across the armchair in the basement where the rest of the party was taking turns watching out for Max.

She laid awake for a while after offering and being turned down for the first watch.

“No, no, brainiacs need their beauty sleep.” Robin had argued with her, “Besides, I have trouble falling asleep so I’ll go first.”

None of the boys put up a fight, everyone exhausted from the day as Lucas and Dustin fell asleep with their shoulders resting against one another, Steve with his head in Robin’s lap on the other end of the couch.

Nancy watched through half shut eyes as Robin raked her fingers through Steve’s hair, deep in thought. Her chest ached at the image before her, not dating her ass.

“Rekindling of old flames doesn’t sound so terrible.” Robin said with a shrug as she followed behind Nancy through the woods.

“What?” Nancy turned to look at Robin in disbelief, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Whatever you want it to mean, Wheeler.” Robin said with a smirk, “I mean, is it so awful that I would want happiness for my friends?”

Nancy’s brows furrowed as she held her binder tighter to her chest, “Are you saying that I’m not happy?”

“No I-”

“Cause I’m perfectly happy.” Nancy said, her voice going up an octave. “Jonathan and I are happy.”

“Well, it’s just that when I mentioned Jonathan in the library you flinched or winced or-”

“I did not flinch or wince or anything of the sort.” Nancy defended herself.

“Right, totally.”

“It’s just that,” Nancy started, tucking her chin into her chest as she walked, feeling Robin right behind her. If she paused for even just half a second, Robin would be flush against her back.

“Jonathan was supposed to come home for spring break and he didn’t for whatever stupid mumbly Jonathan reason and I just-” Nancy paused, mulling over her next words, “I don’t know, I just wish I knew the real reason why. Like, I can just feel him pulling away and I don’t know if it’s because he’s so far away, or he met somebody new, I just wish he would tell me.” She said this last part with a bit of sadness. She really did want to know why Jonathan was pulling away, and if it was for the same reasons she now was too.

Robin leaned in as she walked, causing her to misjudge exactly how close she had leaned in. She was so close and her voice suddenly softer, “I think that’s a perfectly good reason to flinch, wince, or both.”

Nancy hummed to herself, not really wanting to think about her boyfriend at all. She found that as more time passed, day by day, she thought about him less and less. “So wait, you said friends. Does that make us officially friends?” She wasn’t sure why she asked it, but suddenly Robin’s answer was the most important piece of information she needed.

“Uh, yeah.” Robin said it like it wasn’t even a question, like of course they were friends. So much had already happened to them in such a short amount of time, it would bring anyone together, right? “I-I mean, right?” She second guessed herself, causing Nancy to lean back towards her, still not making eye contact.

“Right.”

“Hey, you guys coming?” Steve asked from ahead, turning to look back at them curiously, “We’re losing light.”

Nancy looked over at Robin then during that sudden distraction, her eyes studying Robin’s face as the taller girl looked over at Steve, her mouth slightly open. Her chest tightened as it dawned on her then for the first time where she knew it couldn’t be anything else.

Nancy wanted Robin to look at her like that.

Nancy’s were still ringing from the final battle with Vecna

A lot had happened in the twenty four hours that followed, most of which Nancy would be grateful if she never had to think about again, but with the current state of Hawkins and the impending doom that they could all feel, she was just happy to be sleeping in her own bed for the night. Tomorrow would be another day, but until then she was just going to focus on being freshly showered and in some soft clothes.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to fall asleep at all.” Robin’s voice drifted over from where she had insisted on sleeping on the ground. Nancy didn’t understand what the big deal was with them sharing the same bed, it wasn’t like anything would happen. They both had boyfriends and the impending return of whatever the hell the upside down would spew out next, to worry about.

“Where’s Steve?” Nancy asked, like she didn’t already know the answer to it. She was still reeling from his insane confession of a future where they got back together and had six children run around. The idea alone made Nancy nauseous, but she didn’t understand it either. Why wasn’t he picturing that future with Robin instead of her? It had to be just the emotional destruction the upside down had caused. It made you think of all of the what ifs that had already passed you by.

“He’s at Dustin’s, he didn’t want to be alone.” Robin said.

Nancy thought back to when they had gotten back from lover’s lake and seen just how much changed since they had left. The town of Hawkins looked like God himself had cracked the Earth open as they all waited for the other shoe to drop. In that cataclysm, Robin’s house had crumbled all the way down to the foundation. She had nowhere to go until her parents came back from her father’s work retreat.

“I can understand that.” Nancy said, staring up at the ceiling.

“Yeah.” Robin breathed, and there was something to it, a heaviness that Nancy supposed she could chalk up to the fact that the taller girl now had nothing. Everything she could ever call hers was now gone forever, all except for one thing.

“Do you miss him?” Nancy found herself asking, and she wasn’t sure what made her say it, but it didn’t surprise her in the least. Her mother always told her she was too curious for her own good. Ask enough of the right questions to the wrong people and she would live to regret it. Well, it hadn’t happened yet, so she continued to ask the things she desired the answers to most.

She could hear Robin’s scoff from the floor, noticing the girl immediately sit up at the ridiculous question. “Do you miss him?”

“What?” Nancy was taken aback at the question, her face screwing up in not only confusion, but annoyance.

Robin swiped her hand across her face, the very face that Nancy had held in her hands while she applied makeup to. Her breath hitched at the memory.

“Nancy, how many times do I have to tell you Steve’s my best friend. That’s it, finite!” Robin ranted, “And don’t think I don’t know he still loves you, because believe me he never shuts up about it! Every time you breathe a different way he has to alert me to it.”

Nancy’s heart fell at the venom in Robin’s voice. “I’m sorry you hate me so much.” She said, her voice quiet to hide the tremble in it. She wouldn’t cry, not after everything else. Robin not liking her back would not be the thing to bring Nancy to tears, she wouldn’t let it. She dug her nails into her thighs to make them dissipate.

“That’s not it!” Robin threw her hands up, frustrated. “I know he confessed it to you today before we got to the house. I know, because I told him to.”

“Why would you do that?” Nancy asked, confused.

“Because if he wasn’t, I was going to.” Robin said, and though it wasn’t a confusing statement in the least, it certainly sent Nancy into a tailspin regardless.

“But I see the way you look at him!” Nancy said, sitting up to look at Robin who was staring right back. The soft warm glow of the table lamp gave away just enough detail on either girl’s face to tell the other that maybe they weren’t misreading things. “It’s not the way you should look at your best friend.” Nancy’s voice cracked and her chest ached, because it hurt, because it made her think of Barb and everything that she meant to her.

“Do you want the truth?” Robin asked abruptly, her face as serious as Nancy had ever seen it.

Nancy debated the question, there was no going back now. Jonathan would be returning home tomorrow, but she couldn't think of that now with Robin so close to her. She didn’t want to think about all of the responsibilities that would immediately return to her the minute she left this room. Here, it was just the two of them and her skin had been crawling for months at the idea of the girl that sat before her now. “Yes.” She whispered, she needed to know. Robin could tell her that she loved Steve, and Nancy could finally start trying to get over her, but she needed to know first.

Robin stared at her for a moment, her own version of a war going on in her head. She slowly stood, motioning to the bed as she waited for Nancy to nod. She sat on the edge delicately, like it could be a mistake. “Ask me again.” She said simply, her voice wavering.

“Ask you what?” Nancy tilted her head at the other girl, it was like Robin was purposely speaking in riddles to drive her crazy. Maybe she was.

“Ask me again.” Robin repeated, because it was all she could do. She didn’t want to chance saying the wrong thing. She needed Nancy to tell her what she thought she had been seeing for weeks. Robin needed to know that she wasn’t making things up in her head like her mother always told her she did. She needed Nancy to tell her exactly what it was she was thinking.

“You two are perfect for each other, you don’t even try to hide it!” Nancy argued, because she was nothing without it. It was the truth though, Nancy couldn’t think of a better girl for Steve. She challenged him while also leaning into all of his dorkiness. They finished each other’s sentences, held hands like all the time, and she cried out for him first when Vecna’s tentacles grabbed her. Nancy wasn’t misreading things, she couldn’t be, because if she was, then she had no idea what true love looked like. “You look at him like he holds the whole world in his hands.” She continued, “Like you’re waiting for whatever he has to say next because you need to know what he’s thinking.” And okay, maybe Nancy was projecting a little bit here, but she was nothing if not dramatic. “Robin, you look at Steve like everything begins and ends with him.”

Robin just blinked at her, her hands clenching and unclenching in her lap. Nancy took all of the dirty blonde in, from her borrowed pajamas from Mike’s closet, the mismatched bandaids that peppered her arms and legs, the bruise that was blossoming on her chin, and the cut that was just starting to scab over beneath her right eye. Nancy bit her lip, looking away quickly before she could get lost even more in the other girl’s gaze. She felt like she was drowning even before she dove into lover’s lake, and only now did she really feel like she was coming up for air. It wouldn’t take much for her to lose the rest of her resolutions.

It wasn’t right to believe in someone so much when they didn't ask for it in the first place. Nancy had put Robin up on a pedestal when she wasn’t even looking, and now she was worried that she would crumble beneath the other girl’s weight if she ever chose to jump off.

“All of that is true.” Robin finally spoke, and it took the air right out from Nancy’s lungs. She looked the curly haired girl over, wanting everything in Nancy’s statement to be true. She would have to take a risk, but if anything was telling her that she was right, it was the way the brunette was trying to look away from her at that very moment, but couldn’t. “But it’s not Steve I’m looking at. I-” Robin let out a shaky breath, trying to take the final leap before Nancy interrupted her.

“Robin.” Nancy whispered, cutting her off, and it sounded like a warning and a prayer all wrapped up into one. Nothing had ever sounded so sweet to the taller girl’s ears. Nancy leaned forward, moving closer to her as her eyes darkened a shade.

“Let me finish.” Robin tried, pleading for Nancy to just let her get it out. She had been practicing it for a while now, and if Steve got his moment, she deserved hers too.

“Robin.” Nancy said again, this time a little bit louder as she placed a hand on Robin’s knee where she was sitting criss-crossed on the foot of the bed.

“Nancy, please.” Robin’s voice cracked right as Nancy’s eyes were searching hers, as if she was looking for permission before taking it anyways, moving in the rest of the way to press her lips against Robin’s.

Robin sighed into the kiss, her hands quickly coming up to frame Nancy’s face as she leaned into her. It was the most perfect first kiss Robin could have ever imagined.

“Was that okay?” Nancy asked nervously when she pulled away, her bottom lip tucking up between her teeth.

Robin stared at her as if nothing else mattered, like everything began and ended with her, because in that moment it did. In every moment since knowing Nancy, it had.

“More than okay.” Robin breathed out, pulling Nancy in for another kiss, something she had been wanting to do ever since she first laid eyes on her across the ice cream shop a year ago.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now.” Nancy admitted once they had pulled away, pressing her forehead to Robin’s own.

“What took you so long?” Robin asked, closing her eyes as the moment washed over her. She never thought it was ever going to happen, this moment. It seemed too perfect, like they jumped a million steps just to get to it, and maybe they did.

“I wanted to be sure.” Nancy said nervously, her cheeks pinkening at her certainty.

“Well, never have your journalism skills turned out so right.” Robin giggled, pressing a kiss to Nancy’s cheek, “Say, maybe you have a career in your future, Wheeler.”

Nancy’s giggle echoed Robin’s, pulling the taller woman close. “Let’s worry about the future tomorrow, right now I just want to focus on the now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Robin agreed, leaning in for another kiss.