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Times Like This Where Everything Is A Little Too Much & The Thought Of Talking Makes You Nauseous

Summary:

Robin is overstimulated. Nancy is patient.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Sometimes Robin got a little overwhelmed, her senses getting the better of her and leading to her breaking down.

This was one of those times.

"Robin?" Nancy asked as she entered the bedroom. They were at the Wheeler's house with all the kids (as well as Steve and Eddie) and they'd been playing around in the basement when Robin suddenly stood up and left the area. No one but Nancy and Steve seemed to notice, both of them growing concerned. Steve offered to go check on her but Nancy insisted she should be the one to do it since Robin was her girlfriend, after all. Plus, Steve was way better with the kids anyway.

The other girl was sitting on the bed, stiff as a board, rubbing her right thumb over the knuckles on her left hand in an attempt to self-soothe in a subtle manner. Just that was enough to make her feel slightly ashamed as memories of her mother telling her to stop being so annoying echoed in the back of her head, but there was so much else going on in her head that she could hardly pay them any mind. She didn't even spare Nancy a glance- It's not like she noticed the other girl's presence yet anyway.

Nancy took in the sight and cautiously walked over, sitting next to her girlfriend. She wanted to wrap her in a hug but she knew that might not be a great idea, so she instead just lied a hand (palm up) within view of Robin in case she wanted to take it. Thankfully, Robin noticed this and looked up at Nancy (no eye contact was needed for Nancy to know she recognized her) as she took the other girl's hand.

"Hey" Nancy said gently. She kept her volume low to avoid overwhelming the other girl more. She'd had a lot of experience with this sort of thing from when she was with Jonathan, so she knew that even the slightest overstep could worsen the situation. She needed to be patient, quiet, and not initiate any sort of physical contact unless it was wanted. Not that hard of a task in the grand scheme of things. "Can you talk right now?"

Robin shook her head. It was rare for her to be able to form words when she got like this, as Nancy had quickly learned. It wasn't a big deal. Nancy always kept a pad and paper on her anyways for her journalism, so she simply pulled those out of her pocket and handed them to the blonde, who accepted them with shaky hands.

Sorry, she wrote down. Her handwriting was bad at the best of times so it was practically unintelligible at this point but Nancy was able to read what it said pretty easily. After all, she'd had to get used to the horrific writing style over their time together because of times like these.

"You have nothing to be sorry for" she said with such finality that Robin had to believe her. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked, keeping her tone level and gentle. Robin thought she must've been the luckiest girl in the world to have someone like that. The blonde didn't write anything else, instead just setting aside the pad and pen and making a gesture for Nancy to hold her, which she did. "Is this okay?"

Robin nodded, allowing herself to be held by the brunette. A few minutes passed in relative silence, the only sounds being their breathing (Robin's was finally leveling out to that of a calm person), the air conditioning, the sound of fabric rustling as Robin rubbed her right palm over her left jacket sleeve in a repetitive motion, and the faint noises of chaos coming from down in the basement. Eventually, she calmed down and tapped on Nancy's arm twice to let her free.

"Better now?" Nancy asked the other girl with a small smile that she soon returned with a nod. She still couldn't talk and probably wouldn't be able to for a few hours, but she was calm now. No longer felt like her head had been dipped in a bin of acid. "Good. That's good" Nancy muttered out. "We can stay up here, or you can come down to the kitchen so we can make dinner together for the others?" she offered. Karen and Ted were out on a little vacation of their own, so the older kids (Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie) had been making food every night for both themselves and the younger ones.

Robin smiled and nodded. She had horrible motor skills so she wasn't much help with cooking, but she enjoyed being around Nancy and could still do some things, like grab ingredients from the fridge and set timers. Either way, it was a point of bonding between the two and was both quiet and didn't require any talking. Perfect, considering her current state.

The two stood up and went downstairs.

Notes:

Btw when I say "the kids" I mean Max, Lucas and Dustin (hence their character tag since I also tag any mentions and whatnot)

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