Chapter Text
“Robin” a man’s voice whispered as she groaned and turned around, keeping her eyes shut to savour sleep. “Robin, time to wake up” the voice came again as she was shook, finally fluttering her eyelids open. Vision focusing, she saw Steve looking down on her.
“Wha- What time is it?” Robin asked, her voice extra raspy due to the morning.
”Robin it’s 10am.” Steve said, a bit above a whisper.
“Let me sleep 5 more minutes, yeah?” Robin’s raspy voice sounded again, becoming muffled as she put her head into a pillow.
“I can’t, we are going to the Wheelers’ remember. I promised Dustin that I’d help Nancy look after everyone.”
“Nance- Wha- Who’s Nancy?” Robin stuttered, mind clouded with sleep. Steve clicked his tongue as a look of disappointment mixed with annoyance took over his facial features. A few moments of silence passed and he sighed loudly.
”You know what, that’s it. Get up Robin!” he demanded as he took the blanket covering Robin off of her along with the pillow her face was once buried into. He then continued to roll her until she fell off the bed, confident it would wake her up. Moments later, Robin’s head popped over the mattress as she sat up straight.
”Steve!” she exclaimed with a crack in her voice, looking at him as if he had just murdered the love of her life.
“I told you, we have to go. Now get changed before Dustin gets upset that we’re late.”
Reluctantly, Robin stood up and stumbled over to the bag she brought to Steve’s house. She loudly rummaged through the bag until she found a comfortable pair of tracksuit pants and a baggy top to go with a denim jacket. Steve’s bathroom always smelt funny so she made sure to get changed as quick as she could while half asleep and walked back into his room.
Steve looked up from his watch and over to Robin, “I feel like those trackies don’t match your denim jacket.” he said. Robin rolled her eyes,
”Who cares dingus, we’re just helping babysit some kids.” Robin said as she turned around to walk out Steve’s bedroom door.
”Technically they’re young teens!” Steve called from behind her, “And we’re helping look after, not babysitting!” he called again when Robin continued to walk away. She could hear him shuffling around his room, making sure he had everything. Soon enough he came out his front door, Robin leaned against his car, acting as if she had been waiting for years.
Steve jogged over to his car, unlocking it and getting in as Robin hopped in the passenger seat
“How long is the drive to the Wheelers’?” Robin asked, finally starting to properly wake up as it took her a few tries to get her seatbelt in place.
”Uh I don’t know, 5- maybe 10 minutes?”
Robin nodded her head as Steve pulled out of the driveway. Once they were on the road and going Steve started conversation, and they talked for the rest of the way to the Wheeler house, mostly making sarcastic jokes.
After what felt like a lifetime of laughing, they pulled into Nancy Wheeler’s driveway.
They walked on the path towards the door and rang the doorbell. Small footsteps sounded a few moments before a small curly haired brunette answered the door. Robin instantly flushed red at how pretty the girl was, which didn’t really matter because she instantly looked to Steve.
”Hey Steve.” her voice was soft with a hint of relief.
“Hi Nancy.” he replied awkwardly as he gestured towards Robin, obviously wanting her to introduce herself. Nancy turned to look towards Robin. Robin felt the heat surround her as Nancy’s blue eyes made contact with her own and she prayed that Nancy and Steve wouldn’t be able to tell how red her face was. No longer able to focus, Robin struggled for words.
”Hey I- um, I’m- yea, hi I’m Robin.” Steve huffed a laugh upon hearing Robin stutter.
“Sorry Nancy, Robin just gets really nervous around new people.” Steve explained to Nancy as she grinned a bit, still examining Robin’s facial features. Robin looked at the ground for a few seconds and back up to see Nancy still staring at her.
”I mean I’m usually pretty comfortable after like 30 seconds, Steve is probably just lying to make himself look better.” Robin smirked at Steve as he held back his sigh.
”Oooookay, can we uh come in now?” Steve asked, Nancy turning her attention from Robin back to Steve.
”Oh uh, yes yes sure, I don’t know why I kept you outside.” she responded taking a step away to clear the doorway, letting Robin and Steve in. “The kids are downstairs in the basement” the curly haired brunette girl called as she locked the door.
“What’s new?” Steve called back, obviously expecting them to be there.
Robin stole one more glance from the shorter girl before clumsily rushing after Steve, who was already making his way down the stairs. Before Steve could even get off the last step, Dustin was already hugging him, smiling wide.
“Hey Dustin!” Steve said hugging him back. When Dustin finally unlatched from Steve, he looked around the room to see who was here, counting them in his head. Dustin, Mike, Will, Lucas, Max, El. All of them were looking towards Robin who was awkwardly standing on the second last step. Steve jolted a bit as he remembered they’ve only met Robin once.
“Oh uh yeah sorry guys this is Robin, she slept at mine so I had no choice but to drag the doof here with me this morning.” Steve said with an eye roll. Max and Eleven looked at each other and giggled, a confused look plastering over Steve’s face. “…What?”
”Slept at yours?” Max asked with a grin as Dustin joined in,
”Yea, is she your girlfriend?” he said, teasing Steve as he looked unamused.
”No. She’s not my girlfriend she’s actually int-“
”STEVE!” Robin had to cut off Steve before he went further. All of the kids stopped laughing awkwardly.
The silence was loud. Deafening even.
”Well uh… wanna watch a movie?” Will suggested, breaking the tension. Everyone murmured their agreement as they shuffled around the room, trying to find comfortable spot. Before going to find his spot, Steve threw Robin an apologetic look as Robin mentally facepalmed herself and Steve. As they took a seat next to each other on the couch straight in front of the tv, Steve looked at her once more, mouthing his apology. I’m sorry. Robin really couldn’t be mad at him for than 30 seconds, he just had to watch his mouth more. While the kids (including Steve) argued and decided on a movie, Robin zoned out, pretending the banter wasn’t there. She thought about Nancy Wheeler, unsure why she couldn’t get her out of her head.
“Robin, what do you think?” lost in her train of thought, Robin jumped when Steve’s questions snapped her back to reality.
“Oh uh… I don’t really mind to be honest.”
“Robin agrees with me.” Steve said turning back around to the kids, 2 of which who raised their eyebrows. “She does, she does! She just zoned out a bit right now, aren’t you Robin?”
Steve turned to Robin who was already zoned out again, staring at a wall. “Robin?”
Robin snapped her head back to Steve once again,
”What?” she asked drowsily.
“God, what were you thinking about to make you zone out so bad?” Dustin asked.
”N- nothing.” Robin replied, lying down on the couch and grabbing a random bag of chips off the table. “So anyway, what are we watching?” she asked as she opened the chips and popped one into her mouth.
“Ghostbusters.” Mike said confidentially as Will mindlessly agreed.
”What? No! We are watching Karate Kid!” Lucas half yelled as he stood up and posed, almost falling over as he kicked the air. Soon enough the room had erupted into yelling yet again. Robin cheerily continued to eat her chips as she watched everything go down.
Deciding he’d had enough, Steve started shushing all the kids. Dustin instantly copied him and soon enough the room was silent, all looking to Steve for a solution.
”Ok ok, here is what will happen. We will watch Ghostbusters, then we have lunch, when lunch is done you guys can play your little uh…”
”Dnd”
”Yes, dnd game, and then we watch Karate Kid! Problem solved.”
Finally there was peace as everyone shuffled into their spots while Steve flicked on Ghostbusters.
45 minutes into the movie and Steve was bored as ever, having seen this movie 100 times, yet everyone else seemed fascinated as if they’ve never seen it before. Although Steve let Robin lean on his shoulder and take up the whole short couch, she still didn’t acknowledge his existence until something exciting happened in the movie, hitting his leg every few minutes.
Suddenly Nancy came stumbling down the stairs and when she reached the bottom she saw Robin lying her head on Steve’s shoulder. Nancy’s heart jumped with what felt like jealousy yet she wasn’t sure why, she was certain she didn’t have feelings for Steve anymore. She tapped Steve on the shoulder, hoping it would cause Robin to stop leaning into Steve.
”Hey Steve,” Nancy whispered, not wanting to talk over the movie, “I just went out and bought stuff for lunch and set it all up in the kitchen, I’m really tired got no sleep, do you think you could go up and make lunch.”
“Oh yea of course.” Steve said getting up from the couch without warning so Robin’s head sagged, no longer have the support of his shoulder.
“I can help if you want” Robin suggested, now sitting upright. Before Nancy could protest Steve did for her,
”No I think it’s best that’s there’s at least 2 of us with all these guys at all times. Especially if Nance is resting.”
Robin nodded her agreement and moved to sit on one side of the couch as Steve left and walked up the stairs. Nancy felt pride in her stomach as she got Steve and Robin away from each other, but that feeling turned into something else when Robin made eye contact with her as she went to sit next to her on the couch.
”We are watching Ghostbusters in case you wanted to know.” Robin said to Nancy, making eye contact again.
“Ok” Nancy replied, looking away from Robin abruptly. When she looked at Robin all she could think about was how she was lying on Steve and the jealousy that flooded her mind.
”Yea I uh just thought you might want know since you only just walked down here,” Robin continued as the nervousness made her keep talking, “Even though you’re planning to rest while Steve makes lunch but like you-“ Robin quieted down as she realised she was ranting. Nancy didn’t respond, putting her head on the arm rest, not even acknowledging Robin’s existence.
Although it hurt Robin more than she’d like to admit, she told herself it was because Nancy is tired, and soon enough Nancy was sleeping with her head on the armrest. While everyone else admiring the movie, Robin found herself admiring Nancy sleep. She was a pretty sleeper. The more Robin thought about it the creepier it felt, so eventually she payed attention back to the movie.
“Lunch time!” Steve yelled as he jogged down the stairs, waking up Nancy and breaking everyone else out of their daze. Nancy looked around with tired eyes and Robin couldn’t help but smirk a little at how cute she looked so tired and clueless before following everyone else upstairs to see that Mike’s parents were home, meaning her and Steve no longer had to babysit.
After everyone was gone Nancy fully lied down on the couch, trying to get back to sleep, yet she couldn’t stop thinking about how Robin smirked at her. The slightest memory gave Nancy butterflies and eventually the thought made Nancy mad because Robin is a girl and girls shouldn’t be giving other girls butterflies. Especially ones that Steve and Johnathon never made her feel. From that moment Nancy decided the best thing for her was to hate Robin.