Work Text:
Insomnia driven one shot:
I KNOW
“I’m going to do it today.” Was the first thing Robin said when Steve walked through the doors of Family Video, only a couple of minutes till Robin’s shift ends.
“Do what? Finally, stop having awful music taste?” Steve responded with a smirk.
“No! My music taste is amazing, in fact, it is your music taste that is lacking.” Robin shook her head not wanting to lose track of her point and spoke in a quieter voice. “And you know, I’m finally going to tell her the thing.” Steve kept staring at her with a confused look. “How much of a boob can you be- the THING. you know, about me, about certain stuff I like .” Robin stares at him with raised eyebrows waiting for him to finally get it.
It takes him a while to get it but when he does Steve exclaims, “Oh the THING ,” extending his arms while pointing both fingers at Robin, happy he got what she meant. Then he gasps and drops one arm on Robin’s shoulder. “Oh wait, you’re doing that today?” Robin simply bites her bottom lip and nods her head. Steve runs the hand not on her shoulder through his hair. Exhaling he says “If-I mean, if things don’t go okay or something happens or she says anything bad, well- I’m- I’ll be here for you Robs.”
Robin looks up into Steve's sincere eyes before giving out a shaky “I know you will, dingus.” Steve smiles that stupid smile and pulls her into a hug, they stay like that for a few minutes till they hear the door chime, then a throat clearing. Nancy is standing there looking mad, eyes flicking back and forth between them. She smiles tightly at Steve before turning to Robin, her smile becoming warm. “Ready to go?” Steve gives Robin one final squeeze before whispering good luck, causing Nancy to look even more irritated than she did when she first came in. “Yeah, I’m ready.” Robin finally replies before following Nancy to her car.
While on the car ride to Nancy’s place, Robin thinks about how amazing these past few months have been. After the whole Vecna thing, they became friends but not close enough that they would go out of their way to see each other. Until that day Nancy came in looking for Steve. She and Jonathan had just broken up. Nancy came in looking a complete mess to the outside world, but beautiful to Robin. It was Steve’s day off so Nancy decided to confide in Robin instead. Robin must have given the best advice or said something right because Nancy stayed there her entire shift. Even ended up laughing and temporarily forgetting about her breakup. When she came back the next day while Steve was around, Nancy spoke to him for a while, then went to go find Robin where she ended up talking to her most of the shift again. It became a daily thing till Nancy got a job and couldn’t come around anymore. She came in a week after getting her job and randomly offered to pick Robin up saying she knew Robin didn’t have a car yet and they got off around the same time. That day after Nancy came to pick her up they had their first sleepover. It somehow became a thing. Every day after Robin’s shift Nancy would take her to either one of their houses, watch movies for hours till one of them had to leave, or they would end up sleeping there. Sometimes they would go out to different places around town to eat or to the cinema to watch movies Family video didn’t have in store yet or drive around singing loudly to the mix tapes Robin would make Nancy. Sometimes they would just sit in the park and talk. Sometimes they didn’t even talk, just being around each other was enough. Nancy’s friendship slowly became something Robin couldn’t imagine living without. In fact, Robin was pretty sure she had accidentally fallen in love with Nancy. She would stay up at night thinking up different scenarios where Nancy found out about her and hated her, or just didn’t want to hang out anymore. Robin would talk about her dreams with Steve who would scoff and tell her different variations of, “Pff, sometimes I think Nancy thinks you hung the moon, I doubt anything you do will make her hate you, besides she isn’t like that. She's cool.” After going back and forth for a little over a month Robin decided to trust Steve. As much of a dingus she thought he was, she knew that if one person knew Nancy well enough it would be him. After all, they did date, and save the world together multiple times. So here she was, in Nancy Wheeler’s car driving to what could be the doom of her friendship.
When they get to Nancy’s house, Nancy excuses herself to the bathroom while Robin goes to the bedroom they’ve spent countless hours in. Taking one good look around Robin sighs, “It’s now or never. She mumbles quietly to herself, then sits on the edge of the bed, leaving plenty of room for Nancy to sit as far away from her as possible if things go wrong. Robin won’t lie to herself and pretend she isn’t terrified, oh she is more than that. The entire car ride here she kept second-guessing herself, now that she was actually here, about to tell Nancy her biggest secret. Robin could practically feel her heart trying to climb out her throat. Rubbing her hands against her thighs she thinks about what or how to phrase it. Can’t exactly say “hey I’m a raging lesbian and totally into you, wanna make out?” She continues to think until she hears Nancy opening the door. Looking up she sees Nancy looking at her with a timid smile, holding two Cokes in her hands.
“Sorry I took so long, I brought you, your favorite,” Nancy says while handing Robin a Coke, sitting close enough that their thighs touch, and opening up her own soda. Nancy must sense Robin’s need for peace and quiet because she says nothing, while they sit there sipping their Cokes.
Once they both finish, Nancy takes both the cans and throws them in the can she has next to her door. Sits back down, again, too close for Robin’s current comfort considering what's about to happen. Robin hears Nancy take a deep breath and say, “You sure are quiet today, everything alright?”
Robin startles at this, flinching slightly. Not looking at Nancy, not even daring, because she knows she will lose her confidence, or what little she has right now, Robin opens her mouth to speak. Except nothing comes out for a while. She looks like a fish out of water. How does one confess something they buried so deep inside themselves so others wouldn’t ever know?
Nancy puts a hand on her forearm, “Hey it’s okay, whatever you want to say or whatever is happening, it's okay.”
Robin finally looks at her. Really looks at her, before trying to speak again. “Nancy I- fuck , this is a little hard to say but, well- You know how you thought me and Steve were dating, and I kept saying we were just friends?”
Nancy nods her head, and the hand on Robin's forearm tightens slightly. Her face looks strained. “Yup. Platonic with a capital P.” “Well about that-” Nancy looks away from her as if she thinks Robin is about to deliver some bad news.
“The reason me and Steve aren’t or will never be a thing is because, I- I like- this is hard -” Robin takes a deep breath and then “I like girls, like the way boys like girls.” Nancy’s head whips back to her, hair flying everywhere. Nancy stares at Robin for a long, long time. Face blank. Robin thinks this is it, Nancy is going to tell her she doesn’t want to be friends anymore, or that she hates her but then Nancy’s mouth quirks slightly in a shy smile, she looks down, eyes fluttering. A small red tint to her cheeks growing on her face.
“I- I know.” She says so quietly Robin almost misses it, she looks at the arm still on her forearm seeing it hasn’t left.
Robin takes that as Nancy not being disgusted by her. She is too excited by the fact that she won’t lose her friendship to register Nancy’s words for a few seconds. Once the words do register Robin snaps her head up to Nancy. “You know? What do you mean you know? Know what?” Robin feels a bit panicked now, it's one thing to say you're gay, it's another thing for the straight girl you're telling you're gay, to know that you also have feelings for her.
“I know that you like girls,” Nancy says while shrugging, she moves the hand on Robin’s forearm to her hand. Gently playing with her fingers. Robin is thrown off by Nancy’s actions and words. She is honestly surprised Nancy is reacting so nonchalantly about it as this is an everyday conversation to have with your buddies.
And boy is that hand thing she is doing distracting.
“How I- I mean how did um, you know that I liked girls?” Nancy once again shrugs, looking timid.
“I kind of overheard you and Steve talking about your love for ‘boobies’ a few months back.”
Robin’s mind reels. A few months back? She has known this whole time? “Wait so every time we hung out, a-and you picked me up or we had sleepovers you knew?”
Nancy only nods.
“But I- I don’t get it, you’re o-okay with this? W-with me being ya know?” Robin says baffled, stuttering every time Nancy moved her fingers against hers.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Robin is speechless, her heart drumming in her chest, dancing from happiness.
Nancy doesn’t mind, she actually chose to hang around me knowing .
Robin can’t help herself, she throws her arms around Nancy not thinking about the consequences, hugging her tight, feeling so relieved. “Oh God, I thought you would hate me. I was so scared for so long to tell you, I-I ju-” She cuts herself off when she realizes what she has done. Not wanting to make Nancy any more uncomfortable than she probably already has she moves to let go of her but Nancy brings her hands around her and hugs her back, just as tightly.
“I could never hate you, Robin.” Is all Nancy says, making Robin’s lingering doubt go away. She feels free, the way she felt when she confessed to Steve, but so much more.
After a few minutes, Robin decides to back off and ask a question that had popped into her mind mid-hug. Robin untangles herself from Nancy’s hold. Which is harder because Nancy seems to want to keep holding on. Sitting straight up again, facing Nancy she asks, “if you knew I liked girls, why did you constantly ask if I liked Steve?”
Nancy flushes hard at this question, looking anywhere but at Robin, Nancy says “I thought you also liked boys”
Confused Robin asks. “You can like both?”
Nancy’s eyes widen, then she shrugs her shoulders. “Yeah. It’s possible.”
''Oh, I didn’t know.” Robin shakes her head and thinks about that for a bit. All her life she thought it was only possible to like one or the other. She always liked girls. She knew boys liked girls. Girls liked boys. She didn’t know people could like both.
“Soooo-” Nancy breaks Robin out of her thoughts. “Um, is there any reason you told me?”
Robin’s eyes go wide, she looks at Nancy who has a small expectant smile on her face. Shit, she can’t tell her how she feels, that would be totally weird. “I- uh- n-no, no I just, um wanted to let you know, since we’re friends in all.”
Nancy looks away from Robin, her body going stiff before she says. “Okay.”
Robin feels she has done something wrong, she tries to catch Nancy’s eyes but Nancy keeps finding something else to look at. Robin guesses Nancy must know and is upset Robin would lie to her. Might as well tell her, she already knows, and that way she won’t be upset. “Actually there is a reason I told you,” Nancy instantly looks at her, eyes looking slightly sad, eyebrows creased. Listening to Robin as if her life depended on the next few words Robin was about to say. “I um, well, I told you because I thought you should know-” Nancy's shoulders slump slightly, but Robin continues. “Because you’re my friend and, well I um, I-I like– I like you.” The last thing Robin expected when she said those words was for Nancy’s face to light up completely. Mouth wide with a smile, cheeks going pink for the 100th time today.
“You, you do?” Robin nods and Nancy shakes her head. “Tell me again.”
Robin does, “I like you.”
Nancy leans in closer, “again.”
Robin is confused, dear God she is so confused. What the hell is happening? “I like youuu?” This time it comes out more like a question because again she seriously doesn’t know what the hell is happening? Nancy leans closer, Robin’s breath catches. “
Good.” is all Nancy says as she brings one of her hands to cup Robin’s extremely confused face.
Robin thinks ‘ Nancy must have killed me, I told her I liked girls, and she probably grabbed one of her shotguns and shot me right in the face, because WHAT THE FUCK is happening?’ “Because I like you too,” Nancy says before closing the distance between their lips. Yup, definitely dead, is the last thought Robin has before she kisses Nancy back.