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“Tammy Thompson?”
“Been there, didn’t do that.”
“Vickie?”
“Currently doing that.”
“Nancy Wheeler.”
“Happened once in a dream.”
“Really?”
“Really. Felt weird after, didn’t examine it for Steve’s sake.”
“Steve?”
“If I had to pick a dude.”
“You two realize I can hear everything you’re saying, right?” Robin jumped slightly and noticed that Will had jolted as well. She had been sure that Steve was asleep, not even knowing the last time she had seen him even take a nap. He hadn’t even moved when they both sat down on the couch, and she had practically used him as a cushion.
“I’m not saying anything you don’t already know,” she said, reaching over to ruffle his hair as Will shook his head.
“Because that’s the problem,” Steve mumbled, batting her hand away, “What are you two even doing?”
“Robin suggested it,” Will said, leaning forward slightly so he could look at both of them, “One of the things Vecna does is make you question how you see other people.”
“So you’re what,” Steve said, rubbing his eyes and ignoring Robin’s silent offer to get him something to drink, “Setting a baseline?”
“Eh, mostly,” Robin said, shrugging at both him and Will.
“Mostly?” Steve asked, and she really didn’t appreciate the look he was giving her. After two and a half years, she didn’t even need to ask to know that he was gearing up to say something snarky.
“Mostly we’re just wasting time,” Will said, and bless that boy and his bowl cut. He wasn’t wrong either.
“And you’re not including me?” Steve asked, stretching in a way that hadn’t required her to move from how she was leaning up against him.
“Steve,” she said, turning her head to pointedly look at him, “The last time I interrogated you-”
“You came out to me on the floor of a bathroom?” he asked, with his cocky smile and all. Barely awake from a nap and he thought he was so smart.
“Wait,” Will said, a laugh coming out of his throat, “That’s how that happened?”
“Wait, Robin told you?” Steve asked, a look on his face like that of a puppy who had just discovered the pantry was left wide open.
“Of course I told him,” she said, rolling her eyes and hoping to cut this line of thought off, “Why else would he know about Tammy?”
Steve nodded his head as he thought back to a few days previous. It had felt like a lifetime. After a moment, he just shrugged.
“Oh, makes sense.”
“Your ability to just accept things is why I love you,” Robin said, reaching up to pat his cheek and flatly ignoring the look Will was giving them.
“Because that’s what I’m doing,” Steve mumbled, leaning back into the couch cushions.
“Why did doing these questions cause Robin to come out?” Will asked, almost a bolt out of the blue.
“Oh, I wasn’t asking her about that,” Steve said, yawning, “Exactly.”
Robin closed her eyes as she remembered the exact twists and turns of the conversation. A conversation that Steve would probably think was quite embarrassing.
“In his defense,” she said, looking over at Will, “I had asked him if he was still in love with Nancy.”
Will let out an involuntary laugh, a bewildered look on his face.
“And this leads to…”
“Byers, I’m not sure if you’ve ever noticed,” Steve said, one of his hands reaching out to poke her in the ribs, “But I’m not sure Robin ever knows where we’re going with a conversation.”
“Rude,” she said, swatting his hand with a laugh.
“Really?” he asked, an indignant tone in his voice, “After that thing you said in front of everybody?”
“Have you guys forgotten I’m standing right here?” Will asked, shaking his head with a laugh.
“No.”
“Of course not.”
She did her best not to flash the smile at Will that Vickie had termed her I absolutely know what I’m doing and you can’t prove it smile.
“So what question caused Robin to come out?” Will asked after a second, his body now fully turned towards them.
“It wasn’t a question, actually,” she said, tilting her head to look at Steve. If he didn’t want them to go down this path she would just end it now, despite Will being a persistent little shit when it came down to it.
“You just told him?” Will asked, not taking into consideration that she was attempting to have a silent conversation with her best friend.
“It slipped out in conversation,” Steve said with a shrug, before sighing and rubbing his hand across his face, “And I swear to God, Robin-”
“It was one thing leading to another,” she interrupted him, trying not to giggle, “And before I knew it, the only choice I had was telling Steve.”
“And you were okay with that?” Will asked, still oblivious to the welling discomfort that she knew was radiating off of her.
“Why wouldn’t I be, Byers?” Steve asked, and it took her a second to realize that those words hadn’t come out of her mouth.
“I think he meant me, dingus,” she said, poking his knee.
“Actually, that could be for both of you.”
“Oh, after a terrifying few moments, we each started singing to each other,” she said, hoping beyond hope that this would be enough for him, “And I realized I had never felt more free.”
“Singing like Muppets to each other,” Steve added, a fond smile on his face.
“I…am somehow more confused than I was before we started,” Will said, mirroring Steve’s face in fondness. Honestly, if they weren’t each so adorable, they would have been smothered in their sleep by now.
“Robin asked me if I was still in love with Nancy,” Steve said, and she realized he was about to take this conversation by the reins. Which meant telling Will the full story of what had happened.
“Steve, you don’t need to-”
“And I told her I wasn’t,” Steve continued, rudely ignoring her, “Which was news to me at the time. Truth serum, remember? So she asks me why and I surprised myself by saying it was because of her.”
“Wait,” Will interjected, “You had no idea?”
“Yes and no.”
“Really?” It took her a second to realize that she had been the one to ask that question, explaining, “This is the first I’ve heard this conversation from this point of view, sorry.”
“So I try to be smooth and turn the tables on Robin and get her to admit she is also interested in me,” Steve said, hand gesturing as he talked, “That’s when she lets me know that while she really liked me, there was just one small issue.”
“I like girls,” Robin finished for him, turning to look at him and hoping he knew what her face was expressing, “Exclusively.”
“And that’s when everything made sense to me,” Steve said. The squeeze Steve gave her shoulder was all she needed, “I had noticed, and I had known all along.”
“And it didn’t hurt?” Will asked, and she wondered just what rabbit hole he was leading his thoughts down.
“What, to get turned down?” Steve asked, laughing, “Happened at least 12 times a day that summer, Byers. It hurt more that Robin thought she needed to hide it from me.”
Robin forced out an affronted gasp at the same time as she grabbed his hand and gave a soft squeeze.
“Steve has never fully understood just how dangerous-”
“I have always understood, Robin,” Steve interrupted, squeezing her hand back, “I just know the people you wouldn’t be in danger telling.”
“Okay in fairness,” she said, sighing, looking at Will for a second before back at Steve, “You were right about Vickie.”
“I realize that Robin is your mentor with all of this,” Steve said, starting to stand up, “But there’s something important you need to understand, Will.”
“And what’s that?” Will asked, a smile on his face.
“She’s still Robin.”
“Hey, asshole!”
It was later that evening that found her, once again, on the couch. She assumed alone, a lone second of peace. Once again, she had assumed wrongly.
“So I heard you, Will, and Steve talking,” Vickie said, sitting down next to her, a tentative hand landing on her thigh.
“Hear anything interesting?” Robin asked, biting her lip, wondering if there was anything in specific that would entice such an…open show of affection.
“You never told me the full story of coming out to him,” Vickie said, leaning close enough to her that Robin could make out her freckles, “I hadn’t realized.”
“That it was tied up in all of this?” Robin gestured with her hand in the air, raising her hand to rest on her girlfriend’s elbow, “Yeah, that’s why. It’s been torture not telling you all of it.”
Vickie hummed, her eyes darting down quickly before returning to look at her.
“I think that’s why I’m strangely okay with all the lying you did to me.”
Robin groaned, but didn’t move her hand, “I didn’t lie to you. Just…”
“Casually mislead me?” Vickie asked, a mischievous look on her face. That was a look Robin knew without needing to ask.
“I’ve been a terrible girlfriend,” Robin said, sighing, pleading that the look on her face was the appropriate amount of contrition.
“No, you’ve done some terrible things,” Vickie corrected her, her other hand finally landing on the back of Robin’s neck, “But you’re not a terrible girlfriend.”
“Really?”
“Really.”