Chapter Text
The air in the upside down feels heavier than ever before. The rotten trees hid under dark, bloody vines tend to look like another monsters. The twigs reaching to grab you and burry you under all the half dead nature.
Nancy keeps glancing around her, she feels like something can attack them every second, like if she's not going to be focused, then the hive mind will notice that and take her. Or even worse, take them. So she trembles under all her clothing and she flinched whenever she heard a thunder.
She walks at a fast pace, trying to stay as close to Steve as she can. He's her best way of calming down now. Aligning their steps, quick brushes of their fingers, shared looks paired with faint smiles. His presence feels like a warm blanket on a chilly evening. She shouldn't be doing this. She knows that damn well. It's way too complicated to be something she should do.
Her breakup with Jonathan was only a month ago, that's probably not enough time for people to heal after ending a few year relationship. Well, nothing was really working out between them for way longer than Nancy would want to admit. At some point it just started to feel like they got used to each other. They stopped giving as much as they could to their relationship. Day by day it started to feel like a chore, more than a want, a need for each other. Nancy felt like she was constantly doing something wrong or more like she was never doing enough. It frusrated her, because Nancy Wheeler always has everything planned out and she always knows what to, right? To be honest she hasn't felt like she has anything figured out lately.
Nancy needed some space. Space to figure her life out, to heal her insecurities, to live a life without the constant frustration. But now she's walking towards that damn rotted house in a different dimension where she's about to kill a dark wizard who has been ruining her life ever since the 6th of November. So today is either the day she finally wins, she finally moves on with her life and can start fresh without everything going to total bullshit every now and then. Or this may be the day she dies. They all die...
It's a thought that makes her heart drop everytime it crosses her mind. Her dying isn't that bad, she survived a lot anyway, the day she doesn't have that much luck must come. But her friends, her family losing their lives is way more than she can handle.
So it doesn't really matter whether she had it all figured out or not. She kept walking close to Steve and brushing her fingers against his. She has no idea what she's doing but at the end it feels right more than anything else does.
"Nance..." Steve's voice brings her back to focus. He's looking at her with a mix of affection and a bit of sadness. His eyes are scanning her face, he opens his mouth and closes it a few times before he carries on.
"Remember the dream I told you about? The one about the Winnebago and seeing the country with my six little nuggets?"
"Yeah" How could she not remember it. That whole day keeps replaying in her head whenever she goes out of focus.
"I left one part out... It's the most important part" He looks nervous, like he knows it's to late to back out of what he's about to say but he still holds his breath and fidgets with his fingers, unable to hide his emotions.
"You were there"
Nancy feels like everything stops. Her heart, her thoughts, even the time around them. Air is knocked out of her lungs, her body freezes. She just keeps staring at Steve, knowing damn well that all her emotions are painted on her face. She can't even name what she's feeling. Did she even hear that right? What if she didn't? Shit, she's probably imaging things. Shit
"You've always been there"
She definitely heard this one right, it's just... she doesn't want to let herself believe it. What if she'll fuck up again? She looks at him, his eyes focused on her, waiting for a response. Nancy can't get any words out, she played out something like this in her head so many times, she came up with so many responses but she just blacked out now. The word are repeating in her head over and over, blocking every other thought. Shit shit shit she cannot waste her chance, she needs to say something. But as she's about to start speaking, Steve breaks their eye contact, shakes his head and start walking away.
"I'm sorry Nance, I shouldn't have said it, damn it it's so stupid, just forget it."
It feels like something has shattered between them, but the tension still hangs in the air, not letting them forget one bit of what just happened.
For a moment Nancy watches him walk away. His head down, one of his hands running through his hair. He always does that when he's stressed out.
But she watched him walk away too many times to let him go now.
"Steve wait! Steve!!"
He doesn't turn away, even if it takes all his strength not to look at her.
"Steve please..."
She runs up to him, and with all the confidence she has in herself she grabs his face with her palms and kisses him. The feeling of his lips makes her heart stop, her mind blacks out completely. It's like she's hit by a lightings, the warmth running through her whole body. The kiss says more than all the responses she could possibly come up with. It's desperate, the tension finally breaks. He kisses her back with twice as much desperation, non of them holding back. She feels his hands on her waist, pulling her body into his. She moves her palms to the back of his neck, then onto his hair. She's running out of breath but she can't let go. Now that she's holding Steve like this, kissing him with no restrains she never want to let go.
Eventually she has to break the kiss. She tilts her head back a little, her hand never leaving the back of his head, her body still pressed against his. She can feel a tear forming in the corner of her eye. She looks at him once again and she feels her smile growing bigger and bigger. The hope and affection in his eyes makes her melt, her knees about to give up. But she has to say something eventually.
"Steve, I..."