Chapter Text
Nancy could remember this, long ago, what felt like decades but was only a few years. She had walked up to this door with Barb, eager to spend time with Steve, her possible boyfriend. She hadn’t realized the world would be ending. Hadn’t realized that she would lose her best friend.
This time was different. This time, she was walking up to the door of this big, stupid mansion of a house with Robin by her side, having been the girl’s ride over. Robin was grinning, bumping Nancy’s shoulder before taking off towards the door, instantly pushing one of the double doors open, and Nancy felt herself breathe as she felt the obvious differences from this moment and the moment before when everything had been wrong.
They didn’t go to the pool this time, either. Instead, Robin led her to the left, where they walked into a nice looking dining room area, and then beyond that to a kitchen where Eddie was sitting on a counter.
“Wheeler! Buckley! Welcome to Casa Harrington!”
“You see me every other day, Munson,” Robin flicked his forehead, and Eddie, in his usual dramatic way, pretended as though she had truly caused him physical pain, flopping over the rest of the counter. “You saw me yesterday, in fact.”
“But yesterday was forever ago, Robbie-Bird!” Eddie cried out, all dramatic and mock agonized. “And all I’ve had is Harrington for company.”
“I can just not feed you,” Steve suddenly stuck his head out of the pantry door, giving Eddie a glare.
Eddie suddenly sat up straight, hands between his legs like a puppy being scolded. “I’ll behave. Please feed me.”
Steve rolled his eyes and then disappeared back into the pantry, leaving Robin and Eddie to burst into laughter and Nancy to give her own little giggle. It was nice to laugh like this, just the four of them, no world ending other than the giant X that ran through town.
The Hopper-Byers family had gone back to California, though thankfully not permanently. Just to pack their things and move back home. Home that was… changing. People were leaving Hawkins, others were trying to find comfort, still others were trying to find relief in these times.
And Eddie Munson, wanted criminal for a crime he didn’t commit, was staying at Steve Harrington’s house. Nancy had been surprised the two hadn’t ripped each other’s heads off, but for all their bickering, Steve and Eddie actually became fast friends.
Steve having Eddie and Robin in his life had been good for him, Nancy was glad to note. Just like having Steve, Eddie, and Robin in her life had been good for Nancy, herself. Her mom had been apprehensive, at first, especially the first time she had dragged Eddie to their basement, but Karen had to admit that Nancy had been better with the three around.
More at ease. More at peace. Even a little bit happy, again.
“Now, if I recall correctly,” Steve stepped out of the pantry, arms laden with different food items. “I’m not the only one cooking tonight. Am I?”
The three immediately sobered, all exchanging horrified looks.
Steve hummed, pretending not to hear their suffering as he set out the ingredients for dinner. Robin and Eddie were giving Nancy a slight glare, and Nancy was giving them a sheepish grin, because, really, this whole thing was her fault.
Nancy may or may not have mentioned that she missed Steve’s cooking, to which she was often invited over, but it was normally with the kids and Joyce and Hopper. It was never just them when Steve cooked. And Nancy remembered the times when Steve would cook for her, and Robin and Eddie had more recent experiences, but there was one recipe Steve had made back when she dated Steve that was really, really amazing, and Nancy honestly craved it the more they talked about Steve’s cooking.
So, sneakily, she told Eddie and Robin about it with the hope that Steve would get so annoyed with them pestering him that he would just do it. Robin and Eddie had agreed to the plan.
The plan backfired.
Sort of.
Steve would not be making his famous five cheese lasagna that melted on the tongue with a furious burst of flavor.
They would.
Steve would, of course, be supervising, but they would be tackling the different parts of this meal. Which, Nancy knew, was going to be a disaster. Because, as Steve well knew, Nancy couldn’t cook to save her life.
—--------------------------
“I have no idea how you managed to butcher a salad , Nance,” Steve was seething as he shoved her out of the way of the many assortments of vegetables and fruits and feta cheese and… and… things Nancy didn’t quite grasp. “It’s a salad !”
“A fancy salad,” Nancy huffed. “I just throw a bunch of vegetables and some dressing in a bowl and there we go! Salad! This is… this is like a 1000 piece puzzle.”
“Which is funny, because you used to love 1000 piece puzzles,” Steve scoffed at her. “What was I thinking, letting you in a kitchen? Go into the lounge, Nancy Wheeler! You are banned! You hear me? Banned!”
Nancy huffed, as she watched Steve skillfully chop the vegetables and fruits at a speed and skill even Karen Wheeler would have envied. He had the salad thrown together in no time, flat, and Nancy had barely begun to make her way to the lounge when Steve set the salad and dressing out on the table.
“Robin…” Steve said, voice low and quite dangerous. “What are you doing?”
“Making… noodles?”
Steve was shoving her away next. “I specifically said don’t break them! ”
“But they don’t fit!”
“They fold, Buckley! Go finish shredding the cheese! That I at least know you can do!”
“Um, Harrington?” Eddie called. “The lid kind of came off the thyme, and-?”
“GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN!”
The three scurried out, leaving the food behind and seeking shelter in the lounge. Steve was grumbling, cooking up a storm of rage and fury along with a killer dinner that would taste beautiful regardless of what mood Steve was in. Which left the three to sit there silently in the lounge.
“I was… just going to say it spilled on the counter,” Eddie turned to the girls with a sheepish grin. “I didn’t ruin it, but I wasn’t sure how to scoop it back up. Harrington is really particular about his kitchen.”
“You can say that again,” Robin grinned, already plopping herself down on the floor, pointedly ignoring the couches.
Eddie and Nancy quickly followed suit.
“So, anyone got something to do?” Eddie questioned, already fidgeting nervously.
Robin grinned, reaching into her jacket pockets to pull out a couple things of nail polish.
“I knew this would happen,” Robin declared, proudly, sticking her tongue out at them. “So I came prepared. Get over here, Munson. We’re doing you, first.”
Eddie gave no protest, removing his rings and then his socks as he held his hands and feet out to them. Nancy might have been disgusted at the feet being offered, accept Eddie’s hair had still been damp, and Nancy had a feeling that Steve had expected this sort of kitchen chaos too given that Eddie had showered.
Robin and Steve were really good at reading each other, Nancy found. Nancy had gotten pretty good at reading the two of them, and even at reading Eddie, but it was clear there was more than just trauma bonding Robin and Steve. A secret, if she had to guess, gluing them at the hip.
She used to have that sort of relationship with Barb.
“I never understood it, until now. You lost your Robin, Nance. And I am so, so sorry I wasn’t there when that happened. I’m glad Jonathan was because I can’t imagine what I’d do if I lost Robin. I hope I’d be as brave as you.”
Steve truly had grown in the last few years.
“Right, what color, Nance?” Robin said, laying the nail polish out on a side table as she dragged a particularly expensive looking blanket off the nearby love seat to lay under Eddie’s feet.
“Should we-?”
“Better this than the carpet,” Robin hummed. “We can just flip this over.”
“Box, Robin!” Steve shouted from the kitchen.
Robin rolled her eyes, instantly going back to the love seat with the blanket and sloppily draping it back before pulling a flat cardboard box out from under the same loveseat. To Nancy’s surprise, it had clearly been used for nail-polishing endeavors before.
“I do Steve’s toes, sometimes,” Robin shrugged at Nancy’s surprised look. “His hands are too obvious, but his toes are fair game. He barely wears flip-flops or sandals anymore.”
Nancy’s surprise shifted into a grin. At this point, she really shouldn’t have been this surprised by the little quirks Steve had, but he just always had a way of surprising her.
Eddie suddenly interrupted them by holding up a dark, forest green color.
“You sure?” Robin cocked her head. “I thought you would have gone for the hot chili red, or-”
“The Red and the blue remind me of there ,” Eddie cut her off. “The green… reminds me of Chrissy.”
It was silent as Robin and Nancy’s gazes shifted towards the two colors in question, both of them feeling a little sick at the comparison. The really were Upside Down colors, now that they were both thinking about it. Nancy found herself wrapping her arms around herself, and Robin looked halfway to dumping the contents of the two bottles onto that blanket so she could burn it and the colors.
But then Steve swooped in, snagged the two colors off the table, and plopped down the brightest, most obnoxious neon-yellow nail polish Nancy had ever seen.
“Give him little yellow tips,” Steve grinned at them. “Really show that school spirit, yeah?”
Robin found herself bursting into laughter as she snagged the color from Steve and dove for Eddie’s feet with the dark green. Nancy turned her attention to Steve for a moment, watching as he pulled open a drawer and shoved them into the back of said drawer where they appeared to clink against other nail polish bottles.
Then he was back to cooking as Nancy turned her own attention back to the many bottles while Robin joked and painted Eddie’s nails. It was peaceful, being surrounded by the sound of her friends. Steve bustling in the kitchen, Robin and Eddie talking about nothing, the clink of glass nail polish bottles as they tried to draw weird patterns into each other’s nails.
“Are you making your famous garlic rolls?” Robin asked, gasping in pure delight as the smell of something in the oven wafted over. “The ones that are like the ones from Red Lobster?”
“Maybe,” Steve sing-songed back, peeking his head out to grin at them. “Better finish up your nail art. I’m about to put this sucker in the oven.”
Robin gave a noncommittal hum as she finished perfecting an ‘8’ and a ‘6’ onto two of Eddie’s nails, per his request. Then they were all sitting around, waiting for their nails to dry, just basking in the presence of each other. Even Eddie was still for once.
Then the phone rang.
“I got it!” Steve called, shoving the lasagna in the oven and moving towards the phone. “Harrington residence. Steve speaking.”
A pause.
“Oh, Jonathan! Hey man! What’s up?” Another pause. “Yeah, she’s here. Nails are a little wet, though. Robin roped her and Eddie into a nail painting thing while they left me to cook.”
Another pause that was interrupted by an amused snort from Steve.
“You really think I let Nancy Wheeler try to cook? No, I put her on salad duty, but apparently that was too much, even for her. I’m making lasagna, by the way. The one I made for your family and Hop and El after the… you know.”
Nancy was watching, cursing herself for not having dry nails and for putting Steve in this position. Things between Steve and Jonathan had always been awkward. Always toeing a line that neither knew how to remove. They were civil, but they weren’t great.
“Well, apparently, making this recipe for Nance and her family back in 1983 was a mistake because she basically told Robin and Eddie all about it, and then convinced them to bully me into making it. I was going to try to make them help, but I’ve learned they are nearly as helpless as Nancy, so… that didn’t work out.”
Robin and Eddie released cries of protest at Steve’s words, mostly taking mock offense.
“Well, if she promises not to get nail polish on my carpet, she can come over and take the phone from me whenever she wants.”
Taking that as her cue, Nancy pushed herself up, careful to be sure that neither her fingers nor her toes touched the ground, and she began her little waddle over to the phone. Steve was kind enough to put the phone to her ear for her, and she used her shoulder and chin to prop it up.
“Hi, Jonathan,” Nancy greeted into the phone.
“Hey, your mom said you were at Steve’s, so…”
“Yeah, we bullied Steve into making us his famous lasagna,” Nancy confirmed with a giggle as Steve glared at her. “Robin and I have been treating Eddie to a girls night, too. We just… wanted something normal, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah, I do,” Jonathan agreed, a soft hum on his lips. “Can’t blame you on the lasagna part, though. Any chance you can save me a portion?”
“I’m sure we could bully Steve into it,” Nancy hummed, mockingly considering it.
“What are we bullying me into, now?” Steve sighed as if the entire world was against him.
“Saving some for Jonathan,” Nancy told him with a knowing grin.
“The things I do for you people,” Steve mockingly rolled his eyes.
“I believe that’s a yes,” Nancy spoke into the phone.
“Great!” Jonathan chuckled into the line. “Now I just have to keep it a secret from the rest of my family the whole car ride back tomorrow.”
“Oh dear, what ever will you do,” Nancy sarcastically quipped, rolling her eyes.
“I think you hang out with Eddie, Robin, and Steve too much, Nancy.”
Nancy burst into laughter. “I probably do. But can you blame us. Shared trauma and all that. Robin’s been joking that we’re a bunch of platonic soulmates.”
“Platonic, huh?”
“With a Capital P,” Nancy giggled as Robin attempted to give her a thumbs up without ruining her nails. She hummed, more to herself than Jonathan as her voice became wistful. “Shared trauma does have its way of bringing people together in the strange ways.”
“Yeah, it really does, doesn’t it.” Jonathan paused, the sounding of shuffling and whispered voices behind him took Nancy out of her daydreaming. “Okay! Okay! Listen, Nancy, I gotta go. Will and El want to call their friends, and I apparently take too long.”
“Well, we can’t leave them waiting, now can we?” Nancy hummed. “Take care, Jonathan.”
“You too, Nancy.”
Their little phone call over, Nancy looked to Steve as the phone beeped at her, her nails still not quite dry enough to put the phone back without possibly getting the polish in her hair. Steve seemed to understand, carefully pulling the phone away from her ear and setting back on the receiver.
Then he was picking her up and carrying her back to the lounge, plopping her down as she squealed with laughter. The minute Steve sat down beside her, Robin was wrestling with his socked feet, revealing partially chipped, bright pink nail polish.
“You’re turn, Dingus!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Steve rolled his eyes. “But if you use that obnoxious yellow then you don’t get any food, you hear me?”
Robin just grinned, grabbing for the stupid brightest purple color she had and immediately preparing the nail polish remover. As the scent of cheesy garlic bread and five cheese lasagna filled the air, Nancy let herself relax in the comfort of her friends, giggling as Eddie and Robin tried to come up with the weirdest designs, much to Steve’s protest.
This time was different. And she loved it.