#Vicky figures it out | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

skepsiss · 1 year ago

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Reflection: Nancy's POV

This is a 4 part mini-series about the Fruity Four. It's 1989 and Steve, Eddie, and Robin are visiting Hawkins over winter break. Nancy has invited them all over for a little Christmas get-together, and we read from the point of view of each member of the crew across 1 event.

I wrote these pieces to be read in any order, so... enjoy some Steddie, vague Ronance, Vickie x Robin, and just the Fruity Four being... fruity.

Dialogue prompt "You Remember That?" for @thefreakandthehair's Spicy Six Winter Fanworks Challenge. Page break/border by @/alderdoodle.bsky.social on Bluesky.

Rating: T Words: 4,034 CW: Swearing, crush on a friend, unrequited love, bi-curious, heartbreak

Steve's Part Robin's Part Nancy's Part Eddie's Part

Nancy pressed down the wrinkles on her skirt as she stood in the kitchen. She had a pot of milk on the burner to warm up, but she found herself oddly anxious. Steve, Eddie, and Robin were coming over and despite looking forward to seeing them, it almost felt like she was entertaining some big-wigs rather than her friends. It had been over a year since she had seen everyone in person, and she hadn’t been playing host then. But the four of them had spent plenty of time together at her house, they had saved the goddamn world together, for Christ’s sake. Still, she hadn’t had anyone over since her and Jonathan had broken up last summer.

It felt weird to be back in Hawkins after all of that, even if the break-up had been amicable. Their lives were just moving in different directions and Nancy felt like she was holding Jonathan back while at the same time, Jonathan seemed to feel the same way.

She wanted a career.

Jonathan wanted a family.

They were both supportive of the other’s hopes and dreams, but it didn’t feel like they met at any junction when it came to big life choices. As sad as it was, it had been the right decision. Jonathan deserved happiness and somewhere along the line, Nancy stopped being the person that could give that to him.

So… she was single. Single for the first time since she was 15 and that felt ridiculous. She didn’t know how to navigate that, but she was a capable woman, and she had no doubt she’d figure it out… so long as everyone stopped asking her about it.

There was a rapid knock on the door and Nancy went to answer it without a second thought. It couldn’t be anyone else other than Steve or Eddie—Robin didn’t hit things that hard. Plus, no one else was going to be out in this weather. It hadn’t snowed since yesterday, but it hadn’t melted either. Not many people braved the roads in these kinds of conditions unless they had all-wheel-drive or a death wish.

Nancy opened the door to Eddie, who was shivering and had his back turned to the door.

“--Die, I swear to god, Eddie Mun–”

Nancy looked from Robin who was struggling up the path to the curly mop of brown hair in front of her.

“Why would he die?” Nancy asked, genuinely curious to know what they were talking about and if there was an actual reason to be concerned over Eddie’s well-being.

She didn’t get a proper answer as Eddie pushed his way into the house, hardly offering a hello as he chattered and kicked his boots off. She didn’t exactly expect decorum from Eddie, but a hello would have been nice. At least Robin and Steve had stopped to say their hellos.

Suddenly everything felt busy, but Robin and Steve fell right into step as they hugged her. It was familiar and warm, and many of Nancy’s worries disappeared as she shut the door behind them.

“Glad to see you guys made it in one piece,” Nancy half-laughed, amused that their antics were so high-spirited considering they’d been on the road for the last hour at least—and a flight before that. Nancy herself had gotten in four days ago from New York and had plenty of time to settle. She hoped it was just as easy to settle into a conversation with them all as it had been to fall back into old habits around the house.

It was fun how at home everyone seemed to be, though: Robin sitting on the floor and Steve and Eddie cuddled up on the couch together. They all lived together, so there was no doubt that they’d have a rapport with one another.

Still, her worries about being “the odd man out” didn’t come to light as they asked about her parents and she enthusiastically talked about Holly and her school play. It was so funny to see Holly being a proper young woman now; she was in elementary school and while she was still quiet, there was a bit of that feistiness Nancy loved to see. She had taken note of it when Holly had directly told her that Mike and Nancy were not allowed to come to her performance tonight.

“Oh!” Nancy declared suddenly as she stood up. “I made cocoa, I forgot, one second.”

Actually, she had made warm milk, and more accurately she had left it on the stove unattended.

She rounded the corner into the kitchen with some haste as she beelined it for the stove. The milk hadn’t boiled over yet-–which was a relief-–so she took it off the burner right away and grimaced, hoping she hadn’t burned it.

Robin came in shortly after, and Nancy offered something of an awkward laugh before putting the pot of milk to the side.

“Almost ruined it,” Nancy said quietly, and then gestured toward the cupboard where they kept the mugs.

“They won’t know the difference,” Robin chuckled conspiratorially before retrieving the mugs.

Nancy watched her quietly while pulling out the tin of cocoa mix. Robin had changed her hair and she was dressed as odd as ever. But it worked. It wasn’t exactly fashionable, but it was stylish. Her hair was cut harsher than it had been in high school. The front was about as long as it had been in ‘86, but she had cropped up the back, so her hair was cut at an uneven angle, and she still had her beach waves. It was… rebellious, but in a subtle way that Nancy enjoyed.

Robin was… pretty. She was pretty in a way that boys wouldn’t find attractive, but that Nancy found herself appreciating. She had been thinking about this a lot lately, and she wasn’t really sure how she felt about the whole thing. Furthermore, she was single now-–single for the first time in years–and she had never… experimented. At least that was the phrase they used in school when she talked to some of the more “out-there” writers that seemed to match Robin’s style.

Oh, you’ve never even tried going with a girl?

Sue is fine, as long as you’re cool with her liking girls.

You’ve got to have life experiences if you’re going to write about different people’s lives.

Nancy wasn’t sure how she felt about all of that, but she wasn’t particularly close to any of those girls, and she had learned quickly that New York had a lot of queer people. The only thing that had gotten them to keep her on the level was when she mentioned her ex-boyfriend’s boyfriend who was in a metal band and her lesbian friend from high school.

That seemed “edgy” enough to keep the conversations going, but Nancy hadn’t been single up until recently, and the last several months had been spent with her nose in her books trying to ignore and get over her breakup. It had only been as the semester was ending that Nancy had really started to think about other possibilities.

Robin was… queer. She knew her. Was that pushing things?

You were allowed to have flings and one-night stands, but it felt weird thinking about it toward a friend. But then again, Robin and her weren’t crazy close. They got along well, she liked Robin, but that was probably pushing things. What was her intention behind all of this, anyway?

Curiosity.

Robin was chatting to her pleasantly, and Nancy smiled as she poured the warm milk into the mugs that Robin had fetched. She couldn’t believe she was thinking about this kind of stuff about Robin. That hardly felt fair-–it was messy, but Nancy had learned that she was a messy person when she tore away the layers of properness. She had always been someone who had shocking parallels.

Nancy walked the cocoa into the living room behind Robin and handed her spare mug over to Steve before sitting down on the couch opposite them. Robin peppered her with questions about school and Nancy talked about her classes and potentially doing an internship in the summer. Boring stuff. But it was a nice distraction to stop her thoughts from spiralling.

“How about you?” Nancy asked pleasantly, curious how school was going to Robin up in Chicago.

“Oh! Just my uh, just my basic credits. I haven’t really decided, not properly yet, well, maybe I have. I don’t know? It’s a big question. I might be transferring to another school outside of Chicago, but I have to think about whether it’s worth it and I haven’t really checked if my credits are going to transfer yet, but uh, Vickie was saying she was thinking of going to… Columbia State, so….”

Nancy blinked with mild surprise at Robin’s response, staring at her a moment. She banished any thoughts of flirting or otherwise with Robin, especially as the conversation turned to Vickie.

“Vickie? Vickie Newberry from school?” Nancy asked, not accusatory, but unsure how to react to the news.

“Her high school sweetheart,” Eddie sighed, making himself sound overly dramatic.

“Oh… that’s sweet. Are you guys seeing one another?” Nancy questioned, looking from Eddie as Steve prodded him back to Robin, who was blushing.

Nancy didn’t want to admit that she was surprised and unfairly jealous in some small way that Robin was going with Vickie. Robin deserved happiness and Nancy’s chances of ‘having a fling’ were slim to none, so really it wasn’t fair at all to have her stomach flipping with annoyance and loss.

It was good. Robin deserved that. She should have a girlfriend. She hoped Robin had a girlfriend, not only for Robin’s happiness but for Nancy’s prudence as well.

Robin seemed to have intentions of heading over to Vickie’s place within the hour to visit, and Nancy didn’t mind entertaining Steve and Eddie by themselves. It made sense for Robin and Vickie to get together. They had been in band and Nancy had heard some kind of talk about Vickie from Steve in the summer of ‘86 before he had moved to Chicago with Robin. Nancy had heard that Vickie had stayed in Hawkins after her father’s death. That was all she knew about Vickie, though, they had never been friends in high school.

When Robin did eventually leave-–knocking over an empty plate of cookies in her haste—Nancy said her goodbyes properly and tried not to smile when Steve gave Robin a pep-talk. It was charming to see Steve and Robin interact, and she was happy for both of them. Steve had never been like this with Tommy or Carole, and for the year that they had dated, he hadn’t really replaced those friendships with anyone else. It made Nancy think of Barb and how she had never really replaced that friendship either.

Nancy brushed off the pit forming in her stomach and waited for the door to close before turning on the vacuum that Steve had fetched for her. It was a quick clean up, and really she didn’t mind all that much that Robin seemed to be a tornado of clumsiness when her nerves got to her.

“Don’t you think you should ask me?” Eddie said finally when Nancy turned off the vacuum. She looked at him puzzled before she realized that he was talking to Steve.

“Offering a 3 am walk to Robin’s in the middle of the night if she blows things with Vickie? Don’t you think you should ask me?”

Steve huffed at him as he sat down, slinging his arm around the back of the couch.

“You expect me to not go over to Robin’s in the middle of the night if she blows her first big, like, in-person thing with Vickie?”

The argument wasn’t all that serious, and Nancy rolled her eyes with amusement before putting the vacuum away. She liked this little window into Steve and Eddie’s relationship, it was charming. They seemed to argue a lot, but none of the disagreements held any weight. It wasn’t ribbing—not quite what she’d seen when Steve or Eddie interacted with her brother’s friends—but it was affectionate tormenting or something like that. It was also charming to see that Steve wasn’t backing down from his promise to Robin.

“Snowing, by the way,” Nancy said as she tucked her skirt behind her knees and sat down again.

“Oh—yeah, you owe me,” Steve said, pointing at Eddie accusatory. “What did you say? There was no way we’d get stuck here? You’d eat your shorts or something like that?”

Steve was grinning at Eddie, who was rolling his eyes and looking properly annoyed. Not too much had changed then, Eddie still hated to lose.

“One of you going to start singing Santa Baby?” Nancy asked, leaning back on the couch and watching the two boys. Robin had to deal with this all the time? It sounded like they never stopped talking.

“Do I need to make up the pull-out bed in the basement?” She asked on a slightly more serious note. If the car was going to stay here, it would make sense for them to stay here.

“Let’s just see if it lets up,” Eddie offered, bristling slightly, obviously still keen on being right.

Steve rolled his eyes, but ultimately dropped it. It felt honest, and Nancy liked that; she had never been able to be fully honest with Steve. She regretted that. As friends, though, she was glad Steve was willing to let her make it up to him.

So much about Steve and Eddie seemed the same as it had been when they left Hawkins, but then again, Nancy could see so much growth. Both individually and as a couple. There was not quite an air of maturity as there was an air of ease. They were comfortable with one another. They played off each other’s faults and ‘isms in a natural, almost rehearsed, way. Rehearsed like you’d rehearse live jazz; none of it was planned, but you jammed together enough that you knew how to riff.

Nancy wondered idly if the boys would be interested at all in doing an interview with her that she could submit for a class, or maybe even publish.

The phone rang and as Nancy got up to answer it, the power dimmed and flickered for a moment. The call seemed to drop instantly, and the house went quiet.

All three of them looked up at the ceiling before Eddie hopped up and leaned over the back of the couch to open the curtains.

“Jesus, it’s really blowing out there now…”

“You sure you still want to wait?” Steve asked, obviously trying not to sound smug.

“Might as well wait,” Nancy offered before walking into the kitchen and fishing in the junk drawer for a flashlight. She wasn’t going to sit there and then stumble around in the dark if the power ended up going out.

“If it’s bad enough that you can’t leave, you can just sleep in the basement,” Nancy instructed, walking to the hall closet to grab the candles they kept there. “And if it lets up, then you can leave.”

Steve chuckled as she walked back into the room and deposited her handful of ‘emergency’ goods on the table.

“What?” She asked, sitting back down on the couch to enjoy the dregs of the cocoa.

“Just funny,” Steve offered, smiling at her. “Nancy… always prepared.”

He sounded charmed, as if he was reminiscing over something. The look made Nancy blush, and she glanced down, feeling a bit embarrassed for being called out like that.

“Reminds me of high school,” Steve replied, which made Nancy huff.

High school was two—nearly three—years ago now. For Steve, that meant it was almost four years ago. It felt like it was forever ago, and yet it was still crisp in her mind.

“You should see her handbag,” Steve commented, gesturing to Eddie as if he was about to launch into a funny story. “One time-–I swear, it was like six times in one day-–I asked for stuff, and she just always had it handy. Pen, check. Dental floss? Check. I think I asked for a water bottle? You had that too. And like, what else—it just kept getting weirder, I swear. You had like a little compact screwdriver in there, and a pen light. You had a damn fork in there once. I think the weirdest thing you ever had in there was like first thing in the morning you came to the track field, and I was complaining that I was hungry, and you were lamenting with me and then-–like a magician or something-–pulled a jar of peanut butter out of your purse. Like, a whole jar! I remember absolutely losing it.”

Nancy flushed more at the memory as Steve laughed heartily and Eddie stared at her with amused awe.

“You remember that?” Nancy groaned, covering her face. She was unable to help herself from laughing, too. It had been so long ago she was less self-conscious about it, but Steve had laughed so loudly in public that it had embarrassed her horribly at the time.

“Wait, wait, you’ve got to tell me the story behind that,” Eddie insisted, his expression intense and his smile wide.

“It’s really not that interesting,” Nancy replied, getting a handle on her emotions. “I just… it was after school the day before, and I was really annoyed that Mike and Holly kept eating all the peanut butter when like it was my preference for breakfast, but they wouldn’t leave me like any, probably on purpose on Mike’s part. So I just… my mom bought a new peanut butter jar and I just put it in my purse without anyone noticing, so I could have it for breakfast the next morning and then… totally forgot about it.”

Nancy covered her eyes and laughed some more, finding her actions to be so childish now. She had only been 15 at the time, but it felt like that was a decade away.

“Spiteful, I like it,” Eddie grinned, crawling up onto his knees and peppering her with more questions.

The evening continued like that, and the weather did eventually let up. It was still snowing, but the wind had died down, and the debate of whether they should stay or go arose. Eddie was all for going before he remembered he had forgotten his coat at home, and walking in this weather without proper winter wear was bound to be hellish. Steve was flip-flopping on the pros and cons of staying or going, the least of which was how cold the basement got at night. Nancy couldn’t help but think that the Munson’s trailer was bound to be worse.

“Well, just borrow my jacket,” Nancy finally offered, getting a bit sick of the boys arguing back and forth about whether or not they should leave.

Eddie blinked at her owlishly until Steve nudged him.

“You’d probably fit,” Steve chortled, smiling at his boyfriend.

“It definitely won’t!” Eddie declared, and Nancy thought she maybe saw a hint of a blush before she got up to grab her winter coat. It was large on her, and she had purposefully bought an oversized parka for New York so she could layer more easily. It was purple with white trims, and she could see Eddie’s nose curling as she walked in with it.

“Just try it,” she scolded. Steve was staying surprisingly quiet as she held back her own grin.

Eddie huffed with annoyance, but eventually did take the jacket and tried it on. The zipper strained a bit, but it fit, and Eddie turned to look at Steve indignantly.

“I hate you,” Eddie muttered, tucking into the collar of the coat. Steve was seemingly unable to hold back anymore, and he snorted a laugh.

“Really cuts a nice figure on you,” Steve complimented, indicating toward Eddie’s waistline and how the coat tapered in fashionably.

“Okay, we’re staying here, I’m not wearing this,” Eddie huffed, trying to undo the zipper.

“Careful! This is new,” Nancy scolded, trying not to smile as well and make fun of Eddie by mistake.

“Babe—sweetheart, don’t. Come on, it’s one walk, no one is out,” Steve encouraged, taking Eddie’s hands and stopping him from ruining the coat. “Plus, I’ll take it as an ‘I told you so’ instead of eating your shorts.”

“I hate you…” Eddie repeated, flushing bright enough this time that Nancy was able to clock it.

Nancy grinned at the two boys, finding it incredibly endearing that they argued like this. They were so catty with each other, but there was also so much softness between them. As cheesy as it sounded, it made Nancy feel as if romance wasn’t dead.

With Jonathan and herself, things had worked their way into a routine, and while there was comfort in that, things hadn’t been lively anymore. Nancy wanted lively. Even if it was short-lived; she was 20, and she was allowed a short-term thing. None of her friends from school were getting married yet anyway, even if the pressure was there from the outside. She wanted her career… maybe she could get used to starting a romance short-term wherever she went. Maybe experimenting could be less taboo.

Maybe she’d talk to Robin about this and ask her thoughts on dating girls. Just in general. Not her specifically.

Nancy sighed as she saw the boys to the door, holding out an old pair of Mike’s gloves for Eddie and one of her father’s beanies.

“Be safe,” Nancy said pleasantly, smiling at Eddie and Steve as Steve put on his winter boots.

“Thanks, Nance,” Steve said back, leaning into her for a hug. He gave her a squeeze and Nancy laughed a bit at the intimacy of it.

“If we’re able, we should do something else before we all skip town,” Steve offered, looking at Eddie, who was miserably stuffing his hair up into his hat so it wouldn’t blow around.

“Yeah, that’d be swell. Real peachy,” Eddie grumbled, standing there like a soaked cat, sulking.

Steve shoved him in the shoulder and Eddie stumbled slightly before looking away with a flush, obviously regretful of being so dismissive. He was just in a sour mood and Nancy wasn’t all that bothered by it, Eddie was just like that.

“You’ll have to return my coat before I leave anyway,” Nancy reminded them, and Eddie rolled his shoulder forward slightly as if he was hiding.

“Yeah, I… thanks, Nance,” Eddie said quietly and Nancy smiled at him softly. Out of the three of them, Eddie was the oldest, but he was also the one Nancy felt was the most like a little brother for her. She already had one of those and Eddie was more mature than Mike, but she had a similar protective feeling toward him.

“Be safe,” Nancy encouraged, hugging the side of the door as Steve joined Eddie out on the stoop, the two of them bundled to the nines. “Call when you get in.”

“We will,” Steve confirmed, casually-–and easily—taking Eddie’s hand. It was strange for Nancy to see them being affectionate out in public like this, but with Eddie so bundled up, no one would know who he was-–no one would likely recognize Steve either.

“Night,” Steve offered as he stepped down and offered his other hand to Eddie to help him. Eddie said something vaguely condescending, and Nancy felt her heart warm slightly.

“Night,” she repeated quietly and then shut the door.

Nancy ran her hands over her skirt and flattened down the wrinkles before glancing at the sitting room and the mess left behind. There were still crumbs that needed to be cleaned off the couches and treats that should be packed away so they didn’t go stale, but Nancy felt good, seeing the imprint of her friends in her childhood home. She had been worried they had fallen out of sync with each other, but it had taken little effort to fall back in step with them all. For having been alone for the last six months… that was a comfort larger than Nancy could describe.