Chapter Text
The first moment after Nancy awoke the next morning, she had felt more refreshed than ever in her entire life. In the following moment, as her eyes flitted open and she felt Robin’s arms around her, she remembered why. The previous night came back to her slowly, warm memories of kissing and being held by the girl she’d slowly come to catch feelings for in the last few days.
She remembered Robin’s lidded eyes as she kissed Nancy’s chest, remembered the huskiness of her voice as she whispered in her ear, and she did everything she could not to scream in glee at it all. The plush goat in her arms might be soft, but it was not soundproof. Still, she did give him the biggest squeeze of his adorable life and buried her face in his fur.
… would Nancy call it sex? She didn’t know the rules when it came to two girls, especially since neither of them had done it with a girl before—and in Robin’s case, never done it at all. They felt things out, with Robin’s constant reassurances that if Nancy wanted to stop, all she had to do was say so. It was awkward, and silly, and they found themselves laughing at times over the ridiculousness of it all, but Nancy couldn’t say she regretted it, no matter what it was.
Slowly, Robin stirred behind her, smooth-skinned arms coming to hold Nancy closer. The girl buried her face in Nancy’s shoulder as the low sun shone through the fogged glass window, and while Nancy couldn’t see it, the sound Robin made was absolutely adorable.
“Not a morning person, I assume?” Nancy asked.
She felt Robin shake her head. “Why do you think I drink coffee? Hate mornings…”
As much as she wanted to stay like this for all eternity, they both needed to get up and get home. Still, she could stay in Robin’s arms for a little bit longer, so she rolled over to face her partner and took in the sleepy expression hiding behind mussed hair.
God, how had Nancy not noticed sooner how beautiful and adorable Robin was?
And then Nancy remembered neither of them were wearing shirts, and she blushed like an elementary schooler hearing about two people kissing.
That seemed to get Robin alert, but not in the way Nancy would have liked. “Oh my god, Nancy, are you— are you regretting—”
“No! Just… you’re really hot,” Nancy clarified. She hid her face in her hands and tried to look at Robin—shirtless and attractive as she was—with a little bit more respect and class. However, peering through her fingers, she saw Robin’s eyes flit up and down between Nancy’s face and her own chest, and seeing Robin’s soft blush helped alleviate some of Nancy’s own anxieties.
“Uhh, same to you,” Robin mumbled.
Nancy laughed. “You’re adorable.”
And then she kissed her.
It felt amazing; reaffirming beyond belief to doubts she didn’t harbor, worries of this all being a drunken affair drifting out of her as though they existed at all. She gently held Robin’s cheek as they pushed against each other, giggling in euphoria against her lips.
And of course, because Nancy was an excited teen experiencing an emotional high, she let her desires get ahead of her and repositioned herself above Robin, legs bracketing the taller girl’s hips. She kissed Robin more heartily, held her tenderly, and when she broke away, she leaned close to Robin’s ear.
“I want to do what you did to me last night.”
Robin shivered under her. “Nance, that is the hottest thing I’ve ever had a girl say to me ever, but it is also morning and I think we have to leave.”
Nancy sought out a clock, and read aloud, “6:23AM. We still have loads of time. There’s no way Murray is awake yet either.”
That got Robin to smile. “Are you sure?”
“I’m so sure,” Nancy whispered back.
Nancy kissed Robin in more places than just her lips after that, and relished in all the adoring sounds Robin made.
When they finally, actually got out of bed (they’d tried twice, but they kept dragging each other back), Murray was waiting in the kitchen for them. He was cooking and whistling as if he’d heard nothing.
Nancy, on the other hand, wanted to disappear. She wasn’t particularly quiet, even if she’d tried to be, and it was incredibly obvious even if Murray hadn’t heard them what she’d just spent the last hour doing—even what she and Robin did last night, since Murray wasn’t a fool.
However, when the pair sat down at the table and Murray served the bacon and eggs breakfast, it seemed like he was actually just going to act like nothing happened.
“So, Nancy. How was the head?”
Nancy choked on her drink.
“I-I’m sorry?”
“The bed? In the guest room?” Murray said, acting as though Nancy had simply misheard him. Nancy knew she hadn’t.
Robin looked ready to faint. Nancy thought it was adorable, despite her nervousness at being so easily seen through.
“It was good,” Nancy said anxiously. “Comfy.”
“I bet,” Murray replied, voice dripping with insinuations. “How about you, Robin?”
Robin winced at the attention suddenly being drawn to her. “Hm? Oh, the bed was fine.”
“I thought you slept on the sofa.” Murray was so obvious about knowing and Nancy wanted to strangle him.
“I-Is a pullout sofa in its bed form not still a bed?” Robin inquired, desperate not to admit that she had spent her night fingers deep in—
“Oh, right, of course. Silly me,” Murray said with so much sarcasm it could fuel a small town.
Thankfully, Murray seemed to drop the act as they continued to eat; Nancy was genuinely worried that the tension in Robin’s entire body might kill her if he kept it up. The conversation drifted into sincerity, talks about what next, and after they’d confirmed the wait they’d experience as the press got the news out, they packed up and got ready to leave.
But as they prepared to depart, Nancy began to feel a yearning. Not the kind of yearning she’d been experiencing thus far, with regards to Robin. No, this one was for what they were doing. Whether Robin was there with her or not wouldn’t have made a difference, Nancy hypothesized, because it was a yearning for the truth, and to bring the truth to the public.
She wanted to continue into journalism.
“You alright, Nance?” Robin’s voice came from behind her, giving her a light shock.
“Yeah, just… thinking.”
Expression shifting to anxious, Robin approached slowly. “Thinking about?”
Nancy couldn’t help but laugh at what Robin was quietly insinuating. “Robin, stop thinking this was just a fling.” She took the taller girl’s callused hands, analyzing her chipped black nail polish. “I don’t regret it for a second, and if you want me to be, I’m in it for the long haul.”
Scarlet flooded Robin’s cheeks. “I-uh, I mean, I’d… yeah, I’d like that.”
Needing to go up on her toes, Nancy pressed a quick kiss to Robin’s cheek. “I promise. I’m not going to flake. If you want me by your side, I’ll be there.”
“In what way?” Robin asked, hopefulness in her voice.
Nancy smiled. “Whatever way you’d like. Though, ‘girlfriend’ might be a good one to start with.”
Giggling so sweetly, Robin kissed Nancy hard and joyfully. When she pulled away, she said, “I would like that so much.”
“Then girlfriend it is!”
They pressed their foreheads together and smiled at each other, Nancy feeling like such a dork but feeling even more like she couldn’t give a shit even if she tried.
And then Robin asked, “So what were you thinking about then?”
Nancy couldn’t help the sudden spark that lit in her stomach, letting go of Robin’s hands and pacing around the room as she rambled. “So, this whole thing we’ve been doing. It’s been absolutely crazy, but also really fun? And I feel like I’m actually doing something useful, but not just useful, like it’s something I want to do. The investigation, the planning, the pitch, it’s all so fulfilling and makes me feel like what I’m doing actually matters instead of just waiting to be a librarian in downtown Hawkins.”
“So you’re gonna be a journalist?” Robin asked.
Nancy turned to her, cheeks hurting from how wide she must have been grinning, and said, “Yes! I feel like, now that we’re done, I’m empty, like I need to keep going and doing things and bringing the truth to the people. Does that make sense?”
Robin stopped Nancy’s pacing with a sudden hug. “It makes so much sense.”
“I recommend Emerson if you want to study journalism.”
Both of them separated and turned to the new voice—Murray, holding a steaming mug of coffee. He gave a snarky smile and a wave.
“How long have you been there?” Nancy asked.
“Oh please, I’m not an idiot. I only need one look at you to know you’re two helpless lovebirds. Now hurry up and get out, I have things I need to do.”
— — —
Murray slammed the door in their faces with a stiff, “If you ever need my help again, don’t,” and Nancy drove them off. Things were mildly tense for a moment, Robin feeling too awkward to speak because, holy fuck Murray knows she fucked Nancy Wheeler.
“Do you mind if I stop by Jonathan’s on the way back? I should probably pick up my brother. Apparently he’s been sleeping over at Will’s.”
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Robin said. She felt like that was her response to everything now, but with the nervous energy spiraling around her head and constantly spacing back into lightspeed thoughts and anxieties, each time Nancy spoke to her was like her being pulled out of the sea with a fishing rod and then thrown back in when the topic passes. “I don’t really want to be alone anyways right now.”
Nancy looked at her with a more alarmed face than Robin was expecting. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah! Just… I don’t know, it’s like I don’t want to be out of your presence,” Robin explained. The idea of Nancy dropping her off at home and then waiting for Monday to come around was terrifying. Well, maybe not terrifying; it made her feel cold, empty, and alone, more so than she actually was. She wanted just to curl back up under the blankets of that shitty bed in Murray’s guest room and hold Nancy to her chest once more, even if that would involve being naked around her again, something she could not stomach on a sober mind.
She was certainly obsessed with Nancy, but she was also new to all of this. The fact that she managed to get Nancy off at all, both the night before and this morning, was a miracle. Of course there were awkward bits—Nancy nearly falling off the bed, Robin smacking the wall with her wrist in just the wrong spot, trying to fit together in the right ways because neither of them were used to this—but with Nancy, it all felt normal. It didn’t feel scary, or anxious, or like Nancy was going to judge her for being bad. And maybe that was the vodka talking, or maybe it was the heart-eyes Nancy always looked at her with that, now that she knew how Nancy felt, Robin could never ignore.
“That’s pretty normal,” Nancy said. “When Steve and I first got together, I didn’t want to be away from him for a bit either. Though, I don’t think it’s as bad as it is now.”
“Wait, it’s bad?” Robin panicked. Did Nancy feel bad for wanting to be around her—
“No!” Nancy shouted with a laugh. “Like, I want to be around you so badly, so much more badly than I wanted with Steve. It’s like you’re just a really comfortable blanket or something, and I can’t bear to leave your warmth.”
Heat ran through Robin, out her chest and down to the tips of her toes and her fingers, and up into her skull. Her brain felt fuzzy, listening to Nancy talk like this. “That is… wow.”
“What?” Nancy laughed again, a sound that made Robin’s head fog even more.
“Sorry, I just, I can’t even think straight right now,” Robin said. “Hearing you talk like that makes me feel all fluffy and light.”
It wasn’t love, Robin wasn’t too foolish to believe that. But god, did it feel good to feel. It was just like Nancy said; a warm blanket that Robin can’t bear to pull herself out of. She was so obsessed with Nancy, so infatuated. Nancy felt like the universe itself, everything Robin knows, and leaving Nancy’s company felt like backing out of reality itself, and into one that felt dull and lifeless. Nancy brought this strange new color to her vision, letting her see the world in such a different lens than she normally did. She was typically so cynical, but Nancy gave her a reason to love the world a little bit, appreciate it in ways she’d never done before.
“I’d hope so, I’m your girlfriend after all,” Nancy said.
Oh shit. Robin almost forgot about that. After Murray interrupted their heart-to-heart, and Nancy talking about becoming a journalist, that all just slipped her mind.
The way Nancy said the word girlfriend, the way she preceded with your sent shivers down Robin’s spine. She instinctively wanted to hide, but with only her sweater that was currently trapped under the seatbelt, she didn’t have much options for hiding herself.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Robin said, and then, just to feel how it sounds, “you are my girlfriend.” She was going to say something else, but the words left her at the sound of that sentence, the feel of it coming out of her. It felt so good, so real, so right, like breathing real air after a week in a coal mine. She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled from her lungs. “Fuck, you’re my girlfriend!”
“Robin? What’s so funny?”
“I’m a girlfriend! You’re my girlfriend!” She just kept saying, the pure joy and euphoria flowing out of her in giggles because she just couldn’t contain it in her chest.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes! God, it feels so good to say that!” Acting purely on adrenaline and hormones, Robin quickly rolled down the window, leaned out it, and shouted, “I’M NANCY WHEELER’S GIRLFRIEND!!!”
(Thankfully, they were just passing through probably uninhabited woods to get to the highway, so nobody they could have possibly known would have heard them.)
Nancy laughed, so pure and floaty and lovely. She pulled over onto the side of the road, and unbuckled her seatbelt.
“Nancy? What are you—”
Robin didn’t get to finish her sentence when Nancy grabbed her face and kissed her, like it was the only thing in the world. She pulled away giggling, and said, “I’m so glad I found you.”
Well, Robin could say for certain she really liked being Nancy Wheeler’s girlfriend.
After they’d finished making out like hopeless lovebirds on the side of an Illinois backroad, Nancy kept driving and they made it back into Hawkins by mid-afternoon. She pulled into the Byers driveway just as Robin’s watch ticked past 4pm, and Nancy went up to knock on the door. However, as she did, the door creaked open, and Robin could see something behind it.
“Robin?” Nancy called. “Come here.”
Robin immediately climbed out the car, having to slide herself out the window because the latch on the door seemed to jam. The ground collided with her shoulder, and she felt marginally sore, but she shrugged it off as she rushed over to the house where Nancy was standing.
As the door opened further, Robin could better see into the house. The lights were all off, and all the walls were covered in papers and crayon drawings of what looked almost like roots, or vines. Without hesitation, Nancy marched into the house, calling out Mike’s name. Robin followed after, only entirely terrified of what the hell had happened here.
“Okay, please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy,” Robin said. “What are all these drawings? Are they normally here?”
“No, this is definitely new,” Nancy whispered. “It’s almost like last year, when—” Suddenly, Nancy cut herself off.
“When what?”
Nancy turned back to Robin. “Last year, when Will went missing, Joyce put up these Christmas lights all over the house. She said Will could talk to her through them.”
“Wait, how?”
“I don’t know. But the house was a disaster. This… this is different though.”
They both looked around, taking in the disaster that was the house now. Words couldn’t capture just how every surface seemed to be covered in these drawings, the way they snaked around wall and ceiling and floor alike, taped together in a rush like someone’s life depended on it.
Nancy suddenly took off, looking through all the rooms. Robin decided she might as well make herself useful, when she suddenly stepped on something strange—a polaroid cartridge.
“Nancy?”
Nancy peeked her head in. “Yeah?”
“Jonathan doesn’t shoot polaroid, does he?”
“What are you talking about?”
Robin picked up the cartridge and showed it to Nancy. “I’ve seen Jonathan’s camera, and I’m pretty sure it’s not polaroid. So either he suddenly switched cameras, or—”
“Someone else has been here,” Nancy finished. Her eyes widened. “Mike told me that Will sometimes goes to get checked out at the lab. If this is related to the Upside Down, then—”
“They’re probably there,” they both said in unison.
The pair raced out of the house, rushing back into Nancy’s car and driving off. Only with Robin’s insistence did they drive at a normal speed, and by sundown, they pulled up to the gates to the infamous Hawkins Lab. The lights were off.
“Hey, uh, why is Hawkins Lab off?” Robin asked.
Nancy, quick on her feet, rushed into the unmanned security office and tried to open the gate. It didn’t work. “Power’s out,” she said.
Panic races through Robin’s mind. She saw what was in there, the terrifying things that cursed lab housed. Knowing about the Demogorgon, about the Upside Down, knowing that the power might be out at the one thing containing all that nightmare fuel was horrifying.
And then, suddenly, a sound from the treeline. She immediately reached into the car for anything she could use, fiddling around the glove compartment before landing on a pocket flashlight. Not very useful for self defense, she thought.
Wait. Light.
She flicked it on and aimed it at the treeline. “Who’s there?” she shouted.
And out from the bushes came… “Jonathan Byers?”