#goal to finish ronancetober in october has officially failed

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#Ronancetober _ Day 11

The thing is she went through the gate. She went through the gate but she is not standing in the oddly familiar version of the vile dimension of Hawkins. Or maybe she does. Maybe the building piles of snow, a date printed on this messed up newspaper stuck in a puddle of rainwater on the asphalt; maybe the parallel universes living in different times are playing another trick.

Hawkins, Indiana. 1983.

The literal, moving time of 1983; when people are the ones swirling rather than dark particles, when the sun is barely cutting through the early winter's cold.

She shivers, in the clothes only meant for an American Midwestern summer. Behind her, the gate is slowly closing itself off. The dripping membrane is stitching itself back together.

Damn. Goddamn, she is so stupid sometimes.

Robin looks around, finds she is still at the wide alley by Family Video and quickly comes up with the mental image of the city map. Circling back to the video store, she doesn't find a known car in the parking lot - not Steve's own and not Keith's familiar one. No one appears behind the dark glass windows and she wonders if -

Nope. Her keys are rejected and she puffs out a long breath, looking back around the empty street. The sun is rising instead of setting- as if moving upside down - and the people seem to be going to work instead of leaving - as if put on rewind.

If this is indeed 1983, if this indeed October, if this is a weekday morning, then Steve is to be found at -

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit -"

She cannot believe she's about to step back in Hawkins High after graduating from this hole. She cannot believe she's about to go find Steve at his worst fucking time of existing, to go find Nancy at her -

"Oh, fuck -"

Robin breaks in a soft run. From Family Video to Hawkins High, a walk in this weather is going to be the death of her. Dressed in a simple t-shirt, a stupid tie, the sleeveless green vest, her loose ripped jeans and her combat boots, running the way might save her from catching a damn cold or hypothermia. She wonders if sickness can follow her through an interdimensional gate.

Thank fuck she did not relent under Steve's teasing about wearing combat boots in summer.

When Robin arrives at the school, her teeth are cluttering anyway, her breaths are slicing their way in her lungs, her knuckles goddamn hurt, and a headache is pounding against her skull. She is so returning with a fucking cold.

The halls are packed with - with kids. Honest to god kids that Robin almost doesn't recognize. It is a difficult thing - to remember first grade. To properly remember. God. Her memory is so fucked up when it comes to experiences from the years before the Russians and Starcourt, Robin almost damn presses her forehead to the nearest wall to regain some control.

Starcourt Mall. Are they building it right now? Are they building the underground tunnels? Are they- Can she maybe even -

She needs Steve and Nancy. She needs the kids over at the neighbor building of Middle School and she needs El right about fucking now and -

It is instinct.

Finding Steve Harrington in a crowd.

The laugh catching in her throat is a ridiculous one because - Jesus H. Christ - was the hair ever supposed to be attractive?

He is prettier, now. Robin's now. In the future. Whatever the hell.

Of course, there is company around him. An odd and younger version of Tommy and Carol, darkly trailing after him and they are approaching the lockers with their back to Robin standing by the entrance and -

Barbara and Nancy. Barbara - sweet, alive and smiling Barbara Holland - browsing through a handful of cards. Nancy - Robin's girlfriend of five months Nancy Wheeler - looking as if she was just dropped out of a pink dollhouse.

The cards are taken away from Barbara's hand. Steve hovers over Nancy with this smirk Robin always wanted to punch off of his face and even now that - Okay.

This Nancy is not Robin's to call hers.

"Okay, okay, okay. Okay, Buckley, you are just... gonna freak them out a bit. It's fine, it's fine. This won't be the strangest thing they'll find ahead of them".

They look like babies. Steve cannot be much taller than Robin right now.

Jesus Christ.

Even from the distance, she hears Nancy's incredibly soft, incredibly cute; "It's Tuesday..."

"It's Tuesday", Tommy coos and Robin almost wraps a hand around the front of his shirt in response to the mocking aimed at - Nope. Not her girlfriend yet.

When she's close enough, Robin barks her usual, frustrated; "Hey, dingus -"

The five of them jump, heads snapping up and around to stare at her, and suddenly Robin is painfully aware how she looks. Summer clothes, name tab, shivering and deathly pale from the cold, covered in slime and goo from the gate.

Fuck it.

She grabs Steve's arm; meets Nancy's painfully familiar eyes. "We need to talk".

The arm is shrugged out of her cold hand. "Who the fuck -" the boy begins to snarl when Barbara snaps out of her shock and exclaims; "Robin?"

"Hey, Barb. You should... join us".

"Who the fuck are you, freak?" King Steve snarls again and Robin almost slaps the back of his head for the utter assholery. God, he really was a dick to people who weren't his current girlfriend.

Nancy. Nancy is his current girlfriend. Robin will never fucking understand how -

"Steve..." - Nancy gasps then, wide eyed. The look is enough to have him retreating, kind of curling inwards in a seething scowl. God, they really were just kids.

Barbara clears her throat softly. "What, I mean... you look... different?"

"Yeah..." - Robin looks around the hallway as if waiting to see her younger self come out of some corner. How in the hell that would go in terms of time travel or alternative dimensions or paradoxical aspects of universes colliding, Robin doesn't think she wants to know. "The four of us kind of need an empty room for this".

"I'm not going anywhere with you -"

"Your full name is Steven Harrington-Giordano but your father tries to bury your mother's side of the family so the full thing rarely appears on paper".

He gapes. Serves him right.

"Come on".

"We -"

"Not you two".

"Who do you -"

"Nah-ah. Fuck off, Tommy".

"Hey!"

Robin all but drags Steve and Nancy to the nearest empty classroom, one hand on each of them with familiarity they do not share with her, Barbara walking behind them very carefully. The lock clicks behind Robin, shutting off the loud, cluttering crowd.

Nancy is the first to ask; "What is happening?" and Robin almost laughs because, of course, she is.

She wants to ramble about the cold and if one of them can led her a jacket, talk about time travel and the pounding headache in her skull. Tell and plead and beg Barb to keep away from the pool and drop on her knees by Nancy's feet and warn her about the guilt and the nightmares that will have her shielding herself off the real world of a normal eighteen-year-old. She wants to yell at Steve to get his head out of his ass before he gets his heart completely torn to pieces.

These three children are not her party.

Not her family, not just yet.

"Will Byers went missing two days ago", Robin says instead, watering it down to a point they'd be able to follow. "I know where he is".

"You do?" Nancy jumps.

"Robin.."

"How do you know these things?".

"I'm from... Okay, okay. You'll freak out".

"We are already freaking out, Robin".

"Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm... not exactly Robin. Not the one you know. Not anymore, I guess".

"You look older".

"I'm eighteen".

"That's..." - Babraba frowns, runs a hand through her hair and Robin softens at the sight of her - "...that's three years from now".

"Hold on -"

"What, are we seriously talking about -"

"What is even happening right now?"

"Time travel? Seriously?"

Robin could kiss her. Robin won't do so. This is not her Nancy to do so. Not yet.

"There is a kid, Nance, in your basement. Your brother and his friends are hiding her and I am going to need her powers to get home".

"Powers. What powers?"

"Psychic ones".

"What -"

"Yep".

"Are you on drugs? Am I on drugs?"

Robin cannot help but laugh, slowly spinning in a circle around herself and going to lean on a desk to gain some strength in her weak knees. Runs a hand through her hair and rubs at her eyes, fixes the stupid tie and gathers a moment to have her mind returning back in thought.

At least it is warm here.

"Steve, you'll know what it is like to be on drugs two years from now, buddy".

"What the fuck -"

"How..." - Nancy is pressing a flat hand against her forehead, closing her eyes and shaking her head as if to clear it. Her cheeks softly flushed, colored pink. When she opens her eyes, her gaze skips all over Robin - as if to make sure she is real - "...is this possible?"

Robin softens at the young, innocent look on the girl's face. This Nancy has never held a gun. This Nancy soundly sleeps through the nights.

"Physics were never my strong suit", Robin whispers. "But this is what's happening and I really need to get back to 1986, guys".

"By using the... the psychic powers of the kid hidden in Nancy's basement?"

"Yes. Thank you, Steve. Can you drive us? Nancy won't have her license for another year. You are the only one with a car in this time period".

"Jesus Christ, this is so creepy, man".

"We... we can't just skip school".

"Nance -"

"You do graduate, Wheeler".

"Yeah but... Wait. Valedictorian?"

Robin chuckles, reaches out to fix a loose, long strand of brunette hair, brushing it behind the girl's ear. The height difference is a bit off, but her chest swells with adoration anyway. With longing for her own girl back to the future. Nancy, with the stress lines on her face, the glorious depth in the stormy blue eyes, the calloused hands and sharper edges, soulful smiles and the sound of her laugh in late spring.

She misses Nancy, the one Robin is in love with.

"You'll be okay, Nance", Robin whispers in the end, letting her hand drop. "I promise".

Robin is damn sure Nancy blushes.

She cannot help but smirk to herself, make a test of fixing the tie back down against her front. Stormy blue eyes follow the movement and a red deepens the adorable pink and oh -

Oh.

This will be fun to tell her own Nancy later.

#ronancetober #day eleven #robin buckley x nancy wheeler #stranger things fic #ronance #crawling my way to day 15 #blood and tears are shred #goal to finish ronancetober in october has officially failed #it is alright #i forgive me