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There’s never a dull moment in Hawkins. And things have been getting progressively less dull ever since Robin had the misfortune of becoming co-workers with Steve Harrington.
But things were slowly settling down. She spent most of her time volunteering to help the newly-homeless population of their small town. El was still trying to hone her powers and Max had been non-responsive for 2 weeks now, so the rest of them were essentially sitting on their hands doing nothing.
Dustin, Steve and Robin had all gotten really into community service. Dustin had kind of bowed out, opting to instead help care for Eddie’s uncle who was trying to adjust to a life without the help of his nephew. Similarly, Lucas never let a day go by without checking in on Max’s mother, who now had to grieve not only the loss of a marriage and her stepson, but for her own daughter as well.
After telling Nancy about the volunteering, Nancy had become committed to getting attention to the cause. Jonathan’s very candid photos of the crowded gymnasium and the lack of food and supplies paired well with the witness accounts Nancy wrote and sold to several newspapers in the greater midwestern area. Nancy was hopeful about getting funds soon to invest in better cots and pillows for the displaced families.
Either via Nancy or Jonathan, their younger brothers must have heard about it, because they showed up to help the following week. Those two were a bit of a mystery to Robin, as Mike and Will seemed to keep to their own small circle of friends, which apparently excluded even her and Steve.
She knew that Mike was quite moody and always seemed to think every small obstacle was something the universe created to detriment him specifically. He constantly gave others the stink eye and it kept most people from talking to him. Will was… well, he was quiet. He was friendlier, but he always made sure to keep to himself as much as possible.
She and Vickie have graduated from making the sandwiches to distributing them amongst the public, which would be easier if the two new sandwich-makers actually tried to be efficient about it.
Will was definitely a painter at heart, but that skill was not needed in the art of sandwich crafting. He smears the peanut butter like he’s trying to blend oil paints on a palette. It takes him way too long to actually finish one.
Mike has probably had his mother cook every single meal in his life because he seems to have no idea how to handle even the simple task of spreading something on bread with a butter knife. He always manages to smear way too much jelly on the sandwich, leaving it sticky and the bread stained purple.
And he complains. God, does he complain.
“I think I’m going to stab myself with this knife if another person asks me if we have creamy peanut butter instead.” He whines.
Robin finds it annoying, but for some unknown reason Will seems amused.
“Creamy is definitely better, though.” He replies.
”I don’t care either way. What I’m sick of is this stupid grape jelly. I go home and I stink like I’ve been crushing grapes by hand, like I’m making wine or something.”
”You don’t like the smell of grapes?”
”I don’t like grapes period.” Mike says, like grapes have committed some atrocity to himself and his family. “They taste like cough syrup. We should be using strawberry jelly instead.”
“Or raspberry. You always liked raspberries.”
A smile lights up Mike’s face and he glances at Will. For a brief second all his angsty teen attitude fades away Robin forgets that she doesn’t like him.
”Oh, yeah. You remember that?”
Will returns the smile, mirroring his gaze. “Of course. There was all of those wild ones in my backyard. We used to just, scarf them down as fast as we could.”
They stand like that for a couple moments. Smiling at each other, lost in memories. It would be sweet if Robin wasn’t waiting on them to hurry up and finish so she could hand these last few out and go home.
She claps her hands together to break them out of their trance. “Hey, boys? Can we get these sandwiches done in the next century? I’m trying to be home before midnight.”
Will looks apologetic, murmuring a “sorry”, while Mike scoffs and says it’s “only like 6 o’clock.” They go back to working in silence and Robin leans against the table with one arm, sighing. She catches Will look over at Mike again. Very briefly, he gives him a once-over and returns to his work. Robin blinks. Okay, weird.
Mike has slipped his last sticky-mess of a PB&J (emphasis on the J) into a ZipLock baggie which means their work is done for the day. The remaining family had actually come up to confirm they were even getting any because they were taking so long. Saves Robin the walk to bring it over, at least.
She just has to clean up the supplies and she can go home and get some well deserved dinner and sleep. But the chief of police Jim Hopper himself has just entered through the double doors which means that he probably needs something and her evening plans will have to wait further.
“Hey, kids.” He says, in the kind-of-more-polite-than-usual tone on voice that he uses when he needs help. “Got any volunteers to spare? We’re conducting another search party and we just lost a couple sets of hands.”
People were most definitely avoiding these “search parties.” If had been so long since the quake that everybody knew it wasn’t survivors they were looking for, but bodies. The actual state cops didn’t care about some small town hicks getting closure, and the Hawkins police force was quite small, so they were desperate for help.
”Will and I just finished our jobs.” Mike says. It would be very nice of him if Robin didn’t know he was only offering to avoid doing any clean up.
“I can help, but I need t-“ Robin tries to answer, before she’s cut off.
“Robin!” Judith, one of the other volunteers, comes over dragging a two bags of laundry behind her. “Could you take this dirty linen to the laundromat for me?”
Judith is a sweet older woman with pipe-curl hair a bum knee. Robin knows she spends even more time in this gym than she does, which means Robin rarely says no to her. She drops both bags, letting out a grunt from the endeavor.
“Um, yeah I can.” She says, grabbing both bags by their handles and straining get them off the ground.
”Oh, good. There’s two more bags by the entrance.”
“Four bags? Judith, I’m flattered that you think I’m that strong, but I’ll end up with a knee like yours if I try to take that much alone.”
“Where’s Vickie? I thought you two usually stuck together.” Judith looks around the gymnasium for the red-head.
“She went home early, she was feeling under the weather.” More specifically, she was complaining of cramps and flashed those pretty doe eyes of hers at Robin, and Robin immediately offered to do the rest of her work.
“I’ll help you, Robin.” Will offers out of nowhere.
Robin snaps her head around to look at him. It seems like the whole group paused what they were doing to listen to their conversation. Mike has also turned to look at him, but he seemed upset by Will's offer.
“I thought we were gonna help search together?” He says, gesturing to Hopper.
“Well, yeah, but Robin needs help.” Will replies. “I can just join you when I’m done.”
”Who knows how long that will take? It’ll probably be dark before you finish.”
Funny how the time of day is suddenly important when it’s Mike’s plans that are being ruined.
“Okay, then we’ll just meet back up at your place when I’m finished.” Will says.
Mike sighs, loud and agitated. “Fine, whatever. See you later, I guess.”
Hopper catches Robin’s gaze. He rolls his eyes, shaking his head. Robin frowns, shrugging in response. Robin always wondered why Hopper had such a disdain for Mike Wheeler, but after being around him for an extended period of time, she gets it.
Not that he was ever super rational, but Robin doesn’t get why being separated for maybe a couple hours is that big of a deal to Mike. Will and Mike had been practically attached at the hip for the past couple weeks, and to top it all off, the Byers brothers were also temporarily relocated to the Wheeler’s house. She would be ready to murder someone if she had to spend that much time with them. She works with Steve 8 hours a day, but at least at the end of her shift she can go be alone for awhile. Even then there are days when he gets on her nerves.
The two groups separate, Mike following Hopper with a scowl on his face and Will extending a helping hand to Robin.
"I can take those from you." He says.
Robin hates getting help from random boys because she never wants to owe one a favor, but Will is asking so politely and her arms are so sore, so she does it without question. Will's probably a good kid, she can trust him.
She doesn't know if A. She's really that weak or B. Will has gotten stronger, because he shows no signs for strain when he takes them. She vaguely remembers what he looked like last year, and she swears he grew like 2 feet taller. He was always the smallest of the boys, she honestly thought he was younger. The idea of Steve befriending elementary schoolers wasn't really that strange, in the context of everything else.
They waltz over to the entrance, and thankfully the two additional bags are lighter than the ones she gave Will. Still heavy, though. She wishes she had Hopper drive them over, because even though the Laundromat is only like a block away, she's already exhausted about 10 steps in.
The sun definitely is starting to sink further in the horizon. If one load takes 60 minutes to wash and dry, they really will be out here till dark. Maybe even all night. A laundromat doesn't seem like the worst place to sleep, though. Lots of clean blankets, at least.
Will doesn't say anything the whole walk over. She's not sure she expected him to. Besides being quiet, he seemed like he had something on his mind. Well, they all had stuff on their minds. But Will's seemed particularly clouded. Probably had something to do with the...'mind slayer' or whatever it was they called him.
"Ugh, finally." She says between breaths as they approach the front steps of Wachmistrowicz Washery.
The Wachmistrowicz family packed their bags and moved from Poland to Hawkins in the mid 60s with little to no money to their names and a name too long to fit on the sign of the laundromat they had just purchased. Their kids moved out more than a decade ago, leaving just their parents to run it alone. Obviously the elderly couple couldn't be expected to man it at every hour, so it was pretty much just a self-service type of business.
There's also not a single customer in the store. Which is good, because Robin was tired of being surrounded by people, anyway. Just her, Will, and the fluroesent lighting that showed every stain on the probably-over-30-year-old linoleum. Oh, and the washers, of course.
Robin drops the bags and opens the door of the nearest washing machine. She starts chucking things from the bag indiscriminately. Apparently these two bags had clothes, while Will's had blankets and sheets. Probably explains why those ones were heavier.
She's fit all she can in one washer, and she goes to reach in her pocket for some change. Unable to find any coins in her favored right pocket, she tries the left; there's nothing in that one either.
"Shit." She says.
Will glances at her. "What's wrong?"
"I- can't-" She tries to feel around in the back pockets of her jeans.
"Did you forget your purse?"
"I have-" She pulls the contents of her right pocket out. Two 5's and a 10 fall out.
"You just... keep loose bills in your pocket?" He asks, a bit too judgmentally for Robin's liking.
"I don't like carrying a purse!" She says, like it's a valid excuse.
Will reaches in his own pocket and pulls out a wallet. He hands Robin a couple quarters.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
She slots one into the machine, and lets out a sigh of relief when she hears the motor kick on. She moves onto to another washer and does the same.
The sound of the clothing washing doesn't mask the loud sound her stomach begins to make.
She grips it, groaning. She's been too busy to eat all day. She used to steal a sandwich or two when she made them, but she couldn't do that any more.
"I'm starving. How about you?" Will says, like he can't hear Robin's body is screaming that very same thing.
She nods heedlessly, unable to deny it anymore.
"I think there's a vending machine here, somewhere." He tells her.
They both begin their search and find two by the supply closet. One with drinks, one with snacks.
"Ugh." She says.
"What?" He asks.
"It's a Coke one."
"What's wrong with Coke?"
She shakes her head. "I just prefer Pepsi, is all."
Will blinks at her.
"Coke will work, though." She assures him.
Will retracts more quarters from his wallet and goes to insert one into the machine.
"I want a Sprite."
Will turns to look at her again, expression blank.
"Y'know... Since you have all the quarters."
He nods, but Robin gets the distinct impression that she's done something to annoy him.
They end up with two drinks and snacks. They stand in between the aisles of washing machines for a bit, just watching the clothes in them. Robin gets hypnotized by one, and doesn't even notice Will leave her side until he's already gone.
She spins in a circle, looking around the building for him. He was decidedly not there any more. She slowly chews the pretzel the was now sogging in her mouth. He couldn't have gone far.
She finds him right outside on the front steps and feels dumb for panicking so quickly. It definitely got darker, the street lamps are starting to come on and she can see a whisper of stars in the sky, peeking behind the clouds. Will is sitting on the bottom stair, chewing his Skittles between taking sips of his Coke.
"Thought you ditched me for a sec." She tells him, laughing it off even though it was kinda true.
Will looks up at her. "Hm? Oh, no, I just needed some fresh air. Smells a bit too much like laundry soap in there."
She nods, pursing her lips. "Cool."
She stands there for a second before realizing that it was probably weird to just stand over him like this. She inches down next to him, leaving space in between to set down her can of pop.
She desperately searches for something to say to him. She's never been super great at small talk. She eyes the bag of Skittles sitting next to him and a light bulb flashes in her brain. She reaches over to grab it.
"Hey-" Will says, not super angrily, just sort of alarmed.
"Have you ever tried- Okay well, there's this thing I used to do as a kid- Y'know what, I'll just show you." She tries to find a way to explain her actions but just gives up.
She takes her can of Sprite and dumps the remaining Skittles in the bag into it. She looks over to Will, a grin on her face. Will looks less than happy. Her face falls, briefly, before smiling again in the hopes to make it seem like nothing wrong has happened.
"I-it's- You- You drink it and it tastes like Skittles." She word-vomits out and shoves the can at Will's face. He flinches.
He just stares at her. Robin's mind races. Is he... mad at her? He doesn't look like, too mad, but he's not happy either. She retracts the can.
"Oh, uh, silly me." She says. She uses the sleeve of her shirt to wipe the lip of the can off. "There. No germs now."
At this point she's expecting him to just leave. And it would probably make sense if he did. But he eventually reaches out to the can. Robin almost doesn't let go of it, cause she thinks he's going to knock it out of her hands. But he takes it from her and brings it to his lips, taking a cautious sip. Robin waits with baited breath.
His face recoils instantly. He tries to smile through it, though.
"Hm. That's, well..."
"Fruity, right?" Robin offers.
"I mean, Sprite is already... It's literally lemon-lime flavored, you know."
"Well, yeah..." She says, feeling more and more stupid as time passes.
"It's very sweet I would say." He stares at the can. "Like... too sweet."
"Oh. Huh." Robin wants to jump off of the highest building she can find.
They both turn away from each other. Robin couldn't deal with Nancy acting like she hated her, and Will very politely trying to act like he didn't hate her might be even worse. She needs to do what she did with Nancy, just clear the air.
"So... I can sense a bit of... awkwardness," She gestures between the two of them. "going on here."
"What? No." Robin cannot for the life of her tell if he's being sarcastic or not.
"Maybe just a little bit?" She does a pinching motion to emphasize what she's saying. "Just a teensy-tiny bit?"
"Maybe... a little bit, yeah." Will finally relents.
"I'm... really bad with strangers. Like, really bad, Will." She says, "Like, I used to put on kind of a tough-girl persona and act like I had better things to do than talk to people, when really I was just really scared of others, but then people started calling me a bitch and I didn't want that reputation so I decided to be more open, but, um, when I open up I just tend to ramble and say unnecessary things and now people just think I'm... I don't know, a scatterbrain or something."
Will says nothing, but he nods to show he's listening.
"I'm really sorry if I did something that upset or annoyed you, is what I should be saying." She concludes.
Will stares at her for way too long, like he's trying to sus something out. Robin feels herself start to sweat. Did he... not believe she was being genuine, or...?
"I'm not mad at you." He finally says, and Robin can breathe again. "But... I wouldn't worry about what I think of you. I'm not exactly... someone you need to impress."
Now what in the hell did he mean by that? Someone she didn't need to impress? What?
"Will, I care about impressing you more than any of the other kids." She says. He gives her a quick glance, looking... worried, she thinks? She presses on regardless. "I worked at that ice cream shop for 3 long, long months. I dealt with so many screaming children in a day, I could hear them in my sleep. And you and those little shits you call your party or whatever-"
She jabs his shoulder with her finger.
"Used to annoy the fuck out of me." Robin is a bit worried because Will does look a bit hurt about that, but she's not done- "But you- were the exception. Do you know why you were the exception, William?"
Will shakes his head.
"You were the singular person in that group to say, 'Can I get a scoop of vanilla please?', 'May I have some sprinkles, please?'" She imitates his voice as she says it. "And you always said 'thank you' before you left, and I even saw you throw some pennies in our tip jar, which would be kind of a insult if you were older- but I knew you were kids so you were flat broke."
Will is smiling for the first time since Mike has left. He shakes his head again.
"You remember that?" He says in disbelief.
"Despite it all, I never forget a customer's face." She replies. "God, I'm remembering how much I hated that place. Did you know that I was mopping once, and Mike completely ignored the wet floor sign and tripped and spilled his ice cream everywhere and then he didn't even apologize?"
Will laughs and Robin feels an instant gratification from it. He's laughing at her jokes!
"That does sound like Mike." Will agrees.
She leans back against the stairs, taking in the evening air. It still got pretty cold at night. In all honesty, you couldn't really go out without a light jacket in Indiana until like May at the earliest.
"I don't know how you put up with them, Will, I just don't know how." She says absentmindedly.
"They're a lot but... I really missed them when I was gone." Will replies, sounding suddenly saddened. Whoops, maybe that was the wrong thing to say.
"So... How is school in...Lenora, was it?" She tries to change the topic.
"It was... fine." He says, in a way that suggests it was something other than fine. "It's a bit bigger than Hawkins. Had a campus that led outdoors too, that was a little weird."
"Yeah, I went to a huge school in Massachusetts before my parents and I moved to Hawkins." Robin responds. "Going to a big school isn't bad. It's easier to blend into the background there."
Will frowns, letting a breath out through his nose. Robin gets the sense that he's about to vent about something.
"It's easier to blend into the background, but I'm also getting... attention." He shakes his head. "And... I-I don't really want that."
Robin narrows her eyes. Will wasn't the only teenage boy in Hawkins who was a frequent victim of verbal homophobic-lashings and rumors. She usually saw those as crude and not accurate, just bumpkins targeting anyone who was slightly different than their extremely specific cookie-cutter standard idea of a "boy". But something about that statement triggers an alarm within her. Not that she's the best judge of someone's gayness. Hell, she doesn't even know if she's met another gay person before.
"Yeah... I've also... received some unwanted attention before." She replies, testing the waters. "Though, it's far and few between. The men here in Hawkins don't exactly seem to have much interest in me, thankfully."
Will's expression remains blank. It's not a bad sign, but it doesn't tell her much either.
"Actually it's, uh, just been one person." She says, lowering her tone even though there's no way anyone can hear them anyway. "See, at that ice cream shop I worked at, I had this one co-worker, and..."
Will's eyebrows shoot up, eyes widening. "Steve?!" He whisper-shouts.
Robin smiles, trying her best to hold in a laugh. "But keep that between us, alright?"
Will nods earnestly. "Of course." He shakes his head in disbelief. "So, what happened after that?"
"Well, obviously it didn't go well. I hated Steve, after all."
"Most of us did at one point."
"No, I mean, like, I seriously had a grudge." She insists. "See, he ended up taking who I perceived to be the love of my life away from me."
Right after it exits her lips, Robin wonders if she's said too much. She holds statements like that in so much that if feels good to just say it, but now it's out in the open and she's unsure what his reaction will be. She could be wrong, he could be totally and completely 100% heterosexual. But then again, Steve is that and he didn't react too badly.
Will seems to have finished digesting this statement and his eyes widen further, he covers his mouth with one hand in shock.
Robin feels a sense of dread fill her. She was wrong, wasn't she?
He leans in, cupping his hand against his mouth to muffle what he's about to say. "You were in love with Nancy?"
Robin blinks. That was not the response she had been anticipating. The shock of it causes her to keel over in laughter.
After a solid minute of trying to steady her breathing from laughing too hard, she sits back up and looks over at Will. His ears are tinted a shade of red and he only will meet her eyes for about 5 milliseconds total before looking somewhere else again.
"Sorry, um, I just... thought...." Him scratching his chin is either a nervous tick or a bad attempt to look more nonchalant.
Robin realizes that he was now probably experiencing the same fear she had been moments ago. She clears her throat.
"No, it wasn't Nancy." She says, as politely as she can. "It was someone else. I don't think you would know her, though."
She makes sure to put a special emphasis on her so Will knows he wasn't off base.
Will's shoulders sink in relief, and he finally looks at back at her, a small smile finding it's way to his face. "Oh."
"Though, now that you mention it..." She tilts her head to one side, looking at the sky. "Nancy is a lot cooler than I originally gave her credit for. If she were to fall for me, I don't think I would say no, exactly."
Will grins, shaking his head. "You do realize Nancy is dating my brother, right?"
Robin can't help herself but say the first retort that pops into her brain. "You do realize Mike is dating El, right?"
Before she even has the time to question if what she's implying really has any legitimacy, Will's cheeks turn brighter red than the Coke can sitting beside him. His eyes are as wide as flying saucers and he can barely string two words together. That's more than enough confirmation.
"I- That's- Um, I d-don't-" He sputters.
Robin punches him playfully on the shoulder. "C'mon, Byers, don't deny it. I could spot those longing glances from a mile away."
Will looks like he's going through every single stage of grief, step by step. She can also spot some wetness in his eyes and it makes her feel really guilty. She kind of doubts he's had anyone else call him out on this before. At least, not in a way that wasn't just straight up bullying.
"You can't- You're," He finally musters the courage to look at her again. "You're not gonna tell him, right?"
Robin feels her heart ache at that. This poor kid, should she not have mentioned it at all? Maybe he wasn't ready?
"Of course not. I would never." She assures him.
He lets out a shuddering breath. She reaches out to hold him before she can even question whether that's a good idea or not. Thankfully, he lets her.
She wraps an arm around him, latching her hand onto his elbow. He's hesitant, but he leans his weight against her after a couple of seconds. She can now clearly see the tears threatening to teeter over his eyes, illuminated by the streetlight.
"I've been trying to hide it for so long." He says, so quiet she has to strain to hear him. "And I thought... That it would eventually just, I don't know, go away?"
"I know it's not much consolation, but..." She whispers back to him. "You're not alone. I felt that same way for years."
"How did you... stop feeling that way?" He asks, looking up at her.
She shakes her head. "You don't ever stop. You just... accept it."
Will is silent for a few moments, processing that statement. She hopes it made sense.
"I'll never be normal, will I?" He asks, deadpan.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that being normal was, like, severely overrated?" Robin replies.
Will cracks a smile at that. "Yeah, my brother, many times."
She pats him on the shoulder, giving him a reassuring smile. "Well, there you have it."
Unable to find more words in that moment, they just sit there for awhile. Robin looks at the sky again. She swears she's been able to see more red in the sunset, ever since the quake. While it represents their ever-lingering doom, it's also... pretty.
Will is, surprisingly, the one to break the silence.
"What ever happened to her? The girl you were in love with?"
"I got over her. I found someone else."
"Someone who loves you back?"
Now it was Robin's turn to feel sad. She frowns, letting out a sigh. Her relationship with Vickie was... tumultuous, maybe was the right word? She doesn't know if it's all of Steve's pep talks, or what, but somehow the idea that Vickie may like her back has wormed itself into her brain a couple of times. She thought her having a boyfriend crushed that completely, but now they're broken up and she has no idea where they stand.
"I don't know." She says, "I think not, a lot of the time. But sometimes she just says something, or looks at me a certain way, and..."
She glances at Will, and can immediately tell that he understands exactly what she's describing. And that makes her think back to earlier this evening, when she saw Mike smiling at Will, his worries melting away almost instantaneously when Will spoke. And she knows now that she needs to choose her next words very carefully.
"I don't want to fight a losing battle. And I'm saying this not just for me, but for you too," she pulls him closer, "But, every once in awhile... I feel like maybe I'm not that delusional. Like maybe I don't have to give up hope. Like... maybe there's a chance for us."
Will is hanging on to every word that comes out of her mouth. He nods.
"Again, I think you should know when you've lost, but..." Robin says, "Never give up hope. Not... not completely, okay? Because you never know."
Her voice cracks as she finishes. It prompts Will to tuck her head into his shoulder, planting a hand on her back. She didn't expect herself to get so vulnerable there. She was supposed to be giving comfort to Will, not the other way around.
"I understand. I won't give up hope." He tells her. She hopes he means it.
She closes her eyes and tries to pull herself together. This is not the way she expected to be spending tonight. She hears the tin of a can and opens her eyes. She's surprised to see Will trying the Sprite again.
"It's not that bad, now that I'm trying it again." He says.
"I thought it was too sweet?" Robin asks.
"I mean, you're talking to a person who puts syrup on their eggs, so..."
"Eugh. Why?"
Will smiles. "Mike always did it."
Robin can't help but roll her eyes at that. "God, Will, you have it bad."
"You're the first person to call me out on it, though."
"I'm honestly shocked that that's the case."
They both laugh it off. Robin never would have anticipated to already have this close of a bond with Will Byers, a kid she barely knew just an hour ago, but she feels like the stars must have aligned to bring them together today. She was getting sick of only being able to talk about her love life with Steve, anyway, so she's honestly really thankful this happened.
"You ready to get the rest of this laundry knocked out?" She asks him.
"Let's do it." He replies.