Chapter Text
Some loves are never really over: they make an immense speed and then come back. And then the other one, what was it like? Ah, yes, that's it:
If you love someone, set him free, if he's yours he'll come back to you.
Bullshit.
All great fucking bullshit.
Steve sighed, grabbing a stack of tapes and starting to sort them by genre.
Robin just watched, without showing the slightest interest in helping him, occasionally grabbing a few video-cassettes to read the film description on the back.
"Oh, it's romantic, isn't it?"
"It's all bullshit," he sighed again.
He grabbed the first stack of tapes, depositing them in the action movie shelf.
"Steve Harrington" Robin advanced towards him, with that look on her face that made perfectly clear her intention to torment him for the rest of the day. "So lucky and so tormented."
He raised his eyebrows. "Lucky?" He said, walking over to the counter to pick up another stack of boxes as Robin followed him between the shelves empty-handed.
"Well, you," she said, emphasising that you, "could have as many girls as you want. And if it goes wrong with one, you can always start over,"
He arranged the tapes in the romantic films section, turning finally to meet his friend's gaze.
He had heard this speech before. Not too many days ago, in fact.
"Again?" He said. "You already told me, if I remember correctly."
"Well yes, but..." resumed Robin, with that inquisitive air he now knew well.
"Where are you going with this?" He asked in frustration. There was no point in skirting around it: he knew Robin well enough to know that the best scenario -for himself- was to let her talk and spill the beans about what was on her mind, hoping that once she was over with it something else would catch her attention. Something that didn't involve tormenting him, preferably.
"I think you, Steve, actually know exactly what you want," she began.
Steve turned his gaze to the half-empty shelf in front of him, rolling his eyes.
Robin circled around him like a hawk around its prey, putting herself back in his field of vision.
"Hey, even with your back to me I can feel you're snorting."
"Get to the point, Robin," he said, annoyed. He didn't like talking about Nancy, and would have bet his meagre salary that that was exactly where Robin was going with this.
It was a conversation that had no point. There was absolutely nothing to say.
They had been together, she had eaten his heart for breakfast, sending it down as if it were her favourite cereal, and they had gone their separate ways.
"I think Nancy believes we're together."
He made an effort to remain impassive at her name, putting away the last of the boxes and returning to the counter.
Robin, of course, followed him like a baby duckling follows its mother.
"In short, I thought it appropriate to specify that there is nothing between us".
Steve turned around sharply. "What did you say?"
"Nothing, just that-" Robin seemed to stutter, which was never good. She always, always, had something to say. Therefore, when she was speechless there was definitely something off.
Ever since Nancy had dumped him, the world seemed to have literally fallen apart, a bit like his life. Still, that continuous succession of disasters was a good distraction from facing the reality of his love…situation.
However, not counting the near-end of the world, and a series of unfortunate dates, good things had also happened.
He had met Robin, and had stopped hanging out with the assholes he called friends. He had made real friends, and although they were 14-year-olds, they were still smarter than the people he used to hang out with.
After all, it wasn't all so dark.
But his life hadn't turned out like Nancy's. Of course not. She was happily dating Jonathan Buyers. Soon they'd go off to some brilliant college together - and he'd finally stop risking accidentally running into her around Hawkins- and then graduate and move into a suburb, get married and have two -no, maybe three- perfect kids, in a perfect house, probably even a perfect dog-
"Hey, earth to Stevee"
Robin's hand snapped an inch from his face, bringing him back to reality.
"I was telling you, that I simply specified that the friendship between us is absolutely platonic" she shrugged, then lowered her gaze, as if to add more.
Steve sighed. "And?"
No reply. "Robin?"
"And that you're not currently seeing anyone. That's all."
"Great," he cursed, rolling his eyes. If there was one thing he really didn't want, it was for Nancy to think that he, in the two years since she'd dumped him, had been anchored to his feelings like the titanic at the bottom of the ocean.
"Well, I noticed how she was looking at you and-"
No.
Here was another thing he absolutely didn't need right now: for someone to put it into his head that there was the remote and distant possibility that Nancy might still have feelings for him.
Still...
He shook his head. As if she had ever actually felt anything.
He looked up at the clock.
Good, less than a minute.
Robin continued to mumble, but he kept his faze straight on the clock's hands.
7,6
He heard Jonathan's name in that flood of words that left her mouth, but he struggled to make sure that none of them actually reached his brain.
3, 2
DIN
"Time to go," he said, turning around at the till and slipping off his uniform waistcoat.
"Lock up, all right?" he said, grabbing his car keys and heading outside before Robin could have time to reply. "I'll wait for you in the car."
***
No.
Please don't.
Everyone but her.
"Nan-" the voice didn't come out of his mouth, but his hands automatically wrapped around her face.
"Please don't do this to me," he whispered in front of her still closed eyelids.
He looked up, where the faces and silence of his friends seemed to speak volumes.
When the air finally seemed to reach his lungs, he shouted towards Max. "The walkman".
Everyone turned towards her. Everyone except Robin.
"It won't work," she said. It wasn't a scream, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Despite her words, Steve grabbed the Walkman with trembling hands, placing the headphones around Nancy's ears.
Please work
Please work
"Steve."
He continued to stare at Nancy. Her eyelids trembled.
"Nancy" he tried to scream. "Nancy".
Please work
Her eyes seemed to move wildly, and when she lifted her eyelids slightly he noticed that her pupils were completely white.
No no no
"Nancy. Nancy come back to me".
"Stevee" Robin shouted again, "listen to me".
He struggled to find the strength to look up.
"Kiss her."
He fluttered his eyelids. He must have heard wrong. He waited for her to speak again, but it was not Robin's voice he heard this time.
"Yeah man, kiss her."
It was Dustin.
"This could work," Max stated, standing in front of the others and observing him. Steve blinked confusedly at all his friends. He must have misunderstood. Surely he had misunderstood.
"When he had me," Max said in a trembling voice, "the music was just a means. What really saved me were my memories" she looked towards Lucas, before returning her gaze to Steve and Nancy.
"W-what" he stammered with his heart in his throat. "What kind of memories?"
Max looked uncomfortable for a moment, as if she didn't really want to share the real reason for her salvation from Vecna. Then she sighed, "Simple memories, from when everything was fine. Memories from… before."
Before...
Before.
His hands gripped, perhaps too tightly, Nancy's arms, fuelled by the fear that she might rise into the air at any moment, while his eyes pleaded with Max, or anyone else's, to continue, to convince him that, perhaps, kissing her might actually do something.
And then he directed his eyes to Eddie, who said nothing. He just stared and nodded, and the echo of his word was louder than ever.
He didn't want to believe it.
No, it wasn't that he didn't want to. He couldn't.
He couldn't believe it.
"Come on," Robin's voice urged him.
He looked at Nancy again. He shouldn't do it, he knew. What if she didn't want him to?
What if she got angry with him?
He shook his head as his heart hammered against his rib cage, threatening to spurt out.
What an asshole.
If she was mad at him, it meant that it had worked, that she had made it, that she was safe....
While he was lost in thoughts, Nancy's eyes widened, but it wasn't her.
"Come on" shouted several voices in unison.
He took a deep breath, separating one of his hands from Nancy's arm and wrapping it around her cheek.
"Please work," he whispered, moving closer to her face.
And then he kissed her.
And everything went dark.
***