Chapter Text
“This is not something that you just fucking ‘forget’ how did you not tell me!?” Nancy shouted.
“Because I forgot! It’s not exactly something I think about every day.” Robin shouted back, just as frustrated as her girlfriend.
“I just- I can’t fucking believe this- I can’t deal with this right now.” Nancy wasn’t shouting anymore, but she did open the fridge and pulled out a nice chilled bottle of white wine and poured herself a generous glass while Robin was still talking.
“—Nancy, please just let me explai-“
“Fine, I’ll let you explain- but I don’t think you can even imagine how this feels, how it’s making me feel… we’ve been having an aff-“
“No” Robin cut her off. “ it’s not like that, don’t make it dirty like that.”
Nancy just shrugged and sat down at the kitchen table.
“Explain” she said as she motioned with her hand for Robin to begin.
Robin sat down opposite her, reached across the table for the bottle. She took a big swig, before beginning.
“It was the night before a crawl, Steve and I were in his bed, he’d had this weird look since I’d come out of the shower…”
“Great so you’re in bed together and you’re wearing what, a towel?” Nancy interrupts.
Robin sighs.
“Nance, this was 4 years ago, and no I was wearing boxers and a t shirt.”
Nancy mumbled something Robin chose not to hear.
— Flashback— Flashback—
“Rob, I need to talk to you about something serious.” Steve said as she flopped down next to him on the bed.
He’d moved into the master bedroom after his parents gave him the house.
He refused to come with them after the ‘earthquake’, and with the property prices in the toilet they just signed the house right over- as a nice gesture they still paired for the utilities.
“Everything okay bud?” Robin asked, her now longer hair falling in front of her face when she turned on her side to face him.
“I’ve- eh, I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and…” Steve took a deep breath.
“And?” Robin gently pushed a piece of hair away from his forehead.
He always calmed down with touch.
“I own the house, the car, I have a good college fund and a nice saving.” He said grabbing her hand and holding it before she could move too far away.
“Yeah, you’re pretty lucky…” Robin wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“If I die tomorrow-“
“You won’t!” Robin said, her tone uncharacteristically stern.
“Or the day after, or in a year… it’ll all go back to my parents.” He said with a slightly painted expression.
“So? Aren’t they the ones who bought it?” Robin asked trying not to sound like a colossal asshole.
“They don’t deserve it… so I was thinking…”
Robin still wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“I want to marry you”
And with those words, Robin felt her world collapse in on it self.
Like two container ships hitting each.
Robin stared at him, prepared to laugh, waiting for the punchline that didn’t come.
Steve didn’t look hopeful. He looked scared and tired. Jaw tight, eyes a little glassy, like he’d already prepared himself to be laughed at.
Nothing like the boy she knew from Scoops.
“Steve,” she said carefully, “you know I’m…”
“Gay,” he finished quickly. “Yeah. I know. That’s not, this isn’t that.”
She pulled her hand back, sitting up fully now. “Then what is this?”
He swallowed. “You’re my best friend.”
“That’s not new information.”
“You’re also the person I trust most in the world.” He exhaled sharply. “And if something happens to me, I don’t want my parents getting anything. Not the house. Not the car. Not the money. I want it to go to someone who’ll actually-“His voice cracked, just barely. “Someone who deserves it.”
Robin’s chest tightened. “Steve, you can’t just, people don’t just get married like this...”
“People do when the world keeps ending,” he shot back. “When monsters crawl out of holes in the ground and no one believes you and you keep thinking, okay, this is it, this is the time I don’t make it.”
Silence stretched between them.
“You could make a will,” she said softly.
“I did, I added you and Dustin” he replied. “My parents contested it. Lawyers, Rob. They already tried.”
That stopped her.
“They don’t know everything,” he continued. “If I die married? They don’t get to touch it. It all goes to you. No court. No bullshit.”
Robin shook her head slowly. “This is insane.”
“Probably,” he admitted. “But it’s also simple. No romance. No pretending. We go to the courthouse, sign papers, maybe grab burgers after. We don’t even have to tell anyone.”
She laughed once, sharp and humorless. “You’re asking me to be your wife legally.”
“I’m asking you to be my family,” Steve said quietly.
That did it. That cracked something open.
Robin leaned back against the headboard, staring at the ceiling. She thought about her mom, who barely called. About her dad, who loved her but didn’t really get her. Neither minded that she had all but moved in with Steve Harrington.
About how Steve had shown up, again and again, no questions asked.
Who was the first person she came out to. Who called her every single night and morning. Who was teaching her how to drive in his beloved car.
“You’re only 21,” she said.
“And you’re 19.”
“That’s not helping your case.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m not saying you have to. I just- if it’s you, I don’t feel so… alone.”
She closed her eyes to keep them from watering.
“God,” she muttered. “You’re such an asshole.”
He snorted weakly. “You love me.”
“I do,” she said immediately. Then, after a beat, “with all of my heart.”
“I know.”
Another long pause.
“What happens if you actually want to get married someday?” she asked.
Steve shrugged. “Then we get divorced like normal people. No drama. Clean break.”
“And girlfriends?”
“Encouraged,” he said. “Please. God. I do not want to accidentally become your type.”
She huffed despite herself.
“Courthouse,” she repeated. “No vows. No rings.”
“No rings.”
“And you’re buying me fries after.”
“Large fries.”
“This doesn’t make us… weird, right?” she asked.
Steve smiled, small and sad and very unlike Steve. “Rob, we passed ‘weird’ like 2 apocalypses ago.”
She sighed.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay. Fine. I’ll marry you.”
His shoulders dropped like he’d been holding his breath for weeks.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “But if you ever introduce me as ‘my wife’. I will kill you myself.”
He laughed then, real and relieved. “Deal.”
—End Flashback— End Flashback—
Robin stopped talking.
Nancy hadn’t moved. Her wine sat untouched now, her fingers curled tight around the stem.
“You were 19,” Nancy said finally. Her voice was flat in a way that scared Robin more than the yelling. “You got married at 19, and you just… didn’t think to mention it?”
“It wasn’t real,” Robin said quickly. “I mean, it is legally real, but emotionally? It was paperwork. It was more about becoming family.”
“And Steve?” Nancy asked. “He never thought to tell me either?”
“He assumed I had,” Robin admitted. “I assumed it never mattered.”
Nancy laughed once, hollow. “3 years, Robin.”
“I know.”
“You let me plan a future with you,” she continued. “You let me talk about... Kids. You let me wonder when you’d be ready, and you were already someone else’s wife.”
Robin stood abruptly, chair scraping back. “I was never his wife in the way you’re implying.”
“That doesn’t change what it feels like,” Nancy snapped.
Robin swallowed. “I didn’t keep it from you because I didn’t trust you,” she said. “I kept it from you because it was a stupid, scared, decision we made when the world was on fire.”
Nancy looked up at her then, eyes shiny but furious.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” she asked, looking over at the IRS envelope addressed to ‘Mrs. Robin Diane Harrington’.
The letter was a mistake, Robin had never even changed her last name so she wasn’t sure why it was addressed like that.
“Jesus Christ Nancy! We are going in circles… I forgot! Steve and I don’t even file our taxes together, I don’t ever think about it.”
“You were talking about how you’d want Steve to be the donor if we were to have a baby, and all this time he was your husband! I’m the affair Robin- fuck wait did you consummate the marriage?”
“What the fuck Nance. No of course we didn’t! we kissed once at the courthouse when we signed, that’s it.”
Robin’s voice broke on the last word, sharp and raw.
Nancy froze.
“You.” she stopped herself, dragged in a breath through her nose like she was trying not to splinter apart. “You kissed.”
“It was a peck,” Robin shot back immediately. “Like…like a congratulations handshake.”
Nancy laughed, sudden and brittle. “Wow. Great visual. Really helps.”
“I’m serious,” Robin said, hands shaking now as she planted them on the table. “There was no honeymoon. No sex. No anything. We signed papers, the clerk congratulated us like we’d just adopted a dog, and then Steve bought me fries, a burger and a milkshake.”
Nancy stood, pacing the length of the kitchen. She pressed her palms into her eyes, then dragged them down her face.
“You didn’t tell me,” she said quietly. “Not once. Not when we moved in together. Not when we talked about our future. Not when you told me you didn’t like labels.”
Robin flinched. “Nance-”
“No,” Nancy snapped, spinning to face her. “Do you know how insane that makes me feel? Imagine that you just found out that I’d married Jonathan back in Hawkins, and he actually had a ring and everything. How would you feel?”
“That’s different Nance, you were dating Jonathan. I’d feel horrible if you just told me that you married him back then.”
“And you were dating Vickie, oh my god Rob. You were dating Vickie, did you ever tell her that you got married while the two of you were fooling around?”
The guilt expression on Robins face was enough of an answer.
Nancy gestured wildly between them. “Why does it feel like I just found out my girlfriend has a secret life?”
“It’s not a secret life,” Robin pleaded. “It’s a footnote. A little legal loophole, from when we thought the world might literally end.”
Nancy’s shoulders slumped. The anger drained out of her all at once.
“You should have told me,” she said. “Even if it was stupid. Even if it was messy.”
“I know,” Robin whispered. “I should have.”
Silence settled between them again, heavier this time.
Nancy glanced at the envelope on the counter, then back at Robin. “And you are still married?”
Robin swallowed. “Yeah.”
That landed like a punch.
“And were you planning on staying that way?” Nancy asked.
“I didn’t think about it,” Robin admitted. “Steve and I talked about divorcing someday if it ever mattered. It just… never came up.”
Nancy let out a slow, shaky breath. “It matters now.”
“I know,” Robin said quickly. “And if you want, if this is a dealbreaker, I’ll call a lawyer tomorrow. Hell, tonight. I’ll do whatever you need.”
Nancy studied her face, searching for hesitation, for guilt. She found only fear. Regret. Love.
“You don’t have to make that decision for me,” Nancy said. “But you also don’t get to pretend this didn’t change things.”
Robin nodded. “Fair.”
Nancy sat back down in her chair and Robin stood in front of her, trying to make herself smaller.
A part of Nancy, the dark part wanted to call Steve and have him listen over the phone as she fucked his wife.
“Please Nance, just tell me what to do” Robin pleaded, breaking her free from her thoughts.
Nancy licked her lips. She was still mad, but…
“Well Mrs. Harrington, you can start by getting on your knees” she said as she spread her legs on the chair.