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STEVE FOUND NANCY in the shed outside after Dustin ushered him out of the bathroom. He wanted to get as far away from the boy's digestive system after that interference. He was now working side-by-side with his ex-girlfriend to staple the blankets him and Valentina took from Will's bed to the walls of the shed. This way, Will wouldn't be able to recognize the rotting wood of the attachment to his childhood home.
"Hey," Nancy said after a while of silence. Steve turned to her and returned the greeting. "What you did, helping the kids, that was... really cool."
"Yeah," Steve said. "Those shits are real trouble, y'know? Couldn't have done it alone."
"Yeah, I know," Nancy responded. Steve got the feeling she meant that she knew more than just the little kids being trouble.
The two returned to silence again. It was awkward, and they both felt it.
Their relationship didn't end on the best terms, but it was clear Nancy and Steve still cared for each other. They were together during a really rough time after the Upside Down's events last year. Sure, maybe their relationship started out of infatuation, but it bonded into more eventually. A trauma bond, of sorts. Not the way Jonathan and Nancy bonded, but still in a way that they felt like family.
At this thought, Steve was reminded of why he came to find Nancy in the shed in the first place. He took a deep breath, his heartbeat drumming into his ears so loud that he couldn't hear Nancy do the same.
"I-" "I'm-"
They both paused, turning to each other with their mouths stopped mid-sentence. Nancy's eyes softened and she chuckled, Steve doing the same.
"You go first," she said. Steve usually would have told her to go first, as the gentlemanly thing would be, but what he needed to say couldn't wait. He'd waited three years to say this out loud—actually, he'd been waiting since the moment he met the blonde girl—and he couldn't wait anymore.
"I have something I've been needing to tell you," he started. "I probably should've said it a long time ago, but before I start, I just want you to know that what we had was real. It wasn't a distraction, or a replacement, or-"
"Steve, I know what you mean. And I know what you're going to say," Nancy cut him off.
He looked shocked.
"You do?"
Nancy almost laughed. She placed the stapler and tarp in her hands down onto a nearby stool and turned her full attention to Steve, her ex-boyfriend who was, for some reason, confessing to her his feelings for another girl. But Nancy understood why he was doing it. Deep down, past the 'King Harrington' persona he toyed around with, Steve was a selfless and caring person. That's why she fell for him, and that's why she knew he would be good for Valentina.
"Yes, I know you have feelings for Valentina," Nancy said, causing Steve's jaw to drop. Just slightly, enough for the sigh of air that blew past his lips to be audible. Closed enough, though, for him to wet his itchy throat.
