Chapter Text
The rain pounds down in a never-ending stream, soaking through Robin’s clothes after only a few steps. She keeps running, heart in her throat, and follows Nancy’s headlights from Steve’s porch and out to her car. She piles into the passenger seat as soon as she reaches the door, panting and dripping in the seat. The tension in her chest doesn’t let up, but it eases when she slams the door and is surrounded by the smell of Nancy’s perfume.
“Wow, what a storm. Thanks again for the ride, Nancy. I think I would have ended up in Oz if I’d tried biking home again tonight,” Robin says. She knows the words come out too fast, but she hopes Nancy will just attribute it to the run.
Nancy doesn’t say anything back as she re-starts the car, so Robin pulls her eyes from the deluge outside and looks at her. She's not looking much better than Robin, likely due to her own dash to the car back at her house. Her hair is plastered down against her head. Based on the channels of mascara and lipstick, the water clearly ran down her face in little rivers for a while. Her eyes are pinched and hard as she stares out into the weather.
“I can’t believe you didn’t check the weather before biking here,” Nancy snaps. There’s a sharpness in her tone that Robin hasn’t heard from her in a while, not since becoming friends, and it pokes at something in Robin’s chest.
The tension increases again.
Robin’s eyes drift back to the window and she eyes the water. “Oh, yeah, well I did but I didn’t think it would be an issue, and Steve wasn’t picking up the phone so I couldn't ask him for a ride. I had no idea he wasn’t planning on being here at all tonight until I got here and found the house empty with that stupid little date-night note written on his calendar. I mean, who does that? Writes actual notes on a wall calendar as a reminder for yourself? What an absolute nerd.”
Nancy sighs and it nudges that spot in Robin's chest again.
“I know. I know. I should have been more careful, but I really didn't think he'd be out all night. I always come over on Saturday nights so I don't see why he would have booked a date without telling me. When I first got here I thought he was playing some kind of prank on me. Pretending not to be here just to see me squirm. But then I realized not even he would do that and I found the calendar, so…”
“How did you even get in the house?” Nancy asks, voice still clipped.
Robin shrugs. “I have a key. I stay over enough that it just made sense for me to have my own. It's not like his parents are around enough to notice or care.” Robin keeps her eyes on the storm, fighting off the shivers threatening to build from the back of her neck.
“Wait…why aren't you just staying the night tonight, then?” Nancy asks.
Robin flounders, heart speeding up even further as she tries to find the words. “Bec- becaus- because he's on a date night! I can't risk him coming back with a girl to find me there. Can you imagine? Steve putting in all of the moves and they get to the bedroom and there's just me there in the bed. What would he do? What would she think? It's a nightmare waiting to happen.”
“You…you sleep in Steve's bed? Aren't there three other rooms, not even including the master?”
Robin drags her eyes away from the window again and glances at Nancy, noting the even harder pinch of her face. She fidgets. “I, uh, yeah…sometimes. Nothing happens though, I told you strictly platonic. He's like my fraternal twin brother who's somehow older and we were separated at birth in a tragic accident-slash-government scandal.”
Nancy stares at her hard for a few more long seconds before sighing one more time. She pushes her hair back out of her face and sends another sprinkle of water down her back before gripping the steering wheel so tight her knuckles turn white. “Let's just go.”
She puts the car into gear and backs out of the driveway.
Their speed remains glacial when they hit the road.
The water is coming down so hard and thick, Robin's not even sure how much Nancy can see.
“Thanks again for the ride. I know it's super inconvenient. I really appreciate it. You look very nice today, by the way, did you do anything fun?” Nancy shoots her an unreadable wide-eyed look and Robin's brain catches up with her mouth and she starts to panic. “Oh my god, wait, were you about to do something fun? Please tell me I didn't interrupt your plans, too? Oh god, you had a date night planned, too, didn't you? You had your makeup on and everything. Nancy I'm so sorry, I will make this up to you.”
“I didn't have any plans, Robin, you can relax,” Nancy snaps. Her knuckles are still white on the wheel.
“Oh, good, but are you sure? You just look so nice and I know that takes time and usually when you're just home for the day you don't normally dress up that much. Not that you can't or shouldn't, you just normally don't. Not that you normally don’t look prett- I mean. You’ve just said you don’t like dressing up if you don’t have to. You've said that you like to just lay around in your favorite pajamas all day if you can get away with it, so-”
“Oh come on, Robin. I look like a drowned rat the same as you. You can lay off the flattery, I'm already giving you a ride,” Nancy snaps.
Robin stares at her wide-eyed for a few seconds, mouth open, heart pounding hard. “I- I- you just had clearly put in effort before coming to rescue me and I wanted to acknowledge that you looked nice before I ruined it. I hope you were able to enjoy what your efforts were for before I called.”
Nancy sighs again and Robin watches her shoulders droop a bit, even while her hands and eyes stay locked on task. “I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t have plans. Just drop it.”
“Right, right, can do,” Robin says. She looks back out the window and cringes when a bolt of lightning flashes somewhere in the distance. The water swallows it up almost completely, only leaving a blurry flash through the flood. “I knew it was supposed to storm but this is insane.”
Nancy huffs back and pulls the car over onto the side of the road, slipping them into something that’s either a turnout or someone’s driveway, Robin can’t actually tell. “I can’t see anything at all. We should wait a bit to see if it eases up some.”
Robin nods a few times, squeezing one hand on her left knee and the other on the door handle in alternating patterns. She doesn’t move her eyes from the water outside. “Did you know it only takes about a foot of water to be able to carry a car away? Just twelve inches, can you imagine? At first that sounds like a lot, like with drains and hills nothing would ever pile up enough for it to be a problem. But then something like this happens and it’s like someone just turned on a hose and left it running over the town and suddenly it becomes so much more-”
“Robin,” Nancy cuts her off. “Why are you telling me this?”
Robin keeps nodding her head. Keeps squeezing the door. “Sorry, am I talking too much? Sorry. Sometimes it’s just like the filter in my brain shuts off and I don’t know how to get the words to stop. I know it’s very annoying, my mother tells me all the time. Steve says it can be endearing but he does get annoyed sometimes too, I can tell.”
“You guys really are like siblings, huh?” Nancy says.
“Yep. Yep. Best sibling I never had. The annoyingist. Especially when he goes off on date nights and he doesn’t tell me. When he forgets about me. Especially when there’s a storm and he-” Robin cuts herself off this time. “Nevermind.” She keeps her eyes on the window, watching the never ending stream of water run over it again and again. There’s another flash of lightning somewhere in the distance and she squeezes the door a little tighter, not letting go.
“Robin?” Nancy’s voice has gone inexplicably soft.
Robin turns, struggling to pull her eyes off of the storm to find Nancy’s on the other side of the car. Nancy’s brow is deeply furrowed, still sharp but not as bad as it had been before. Her eyes flick back and forth over Robin’s face for a few seconds as she tries to find her words.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean to forget. Steve cares, he’ll be sad when he realizes.”
Robin shakes her head, letting her eyes settle on the storm outside of Nancy’s window so she can keep both of them in sight at the same time. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. Thanks again for the ride.”
Nancy hesitates, mouth opening and closing a few times. “Robin, Steve always has dates on Saturday nights. I know you know that.”
“Hmm?” Robin says, eyes blowing wide as they snap back to Nancy. Her head starts going a little fuzzy at a sudden pressure against the back of her skull. “I, uh, I don’t- how do you? What?”
Nancy purses her lips. One of her hands drops from the steering wheel and reaches for the one Robin still has clenched on her knee. Nancy’s fingers are cold and a little shaky as they slip over Robin’s, sliding between Robin’s fingers and easing her death grip on the fabric there. Robin latches on to her instead.
“You went to Steve’s because of the storm, didn’t you?” Nancy asks. “Even though it’s a Saturday and you knew there was a strong chance he’d be out.”
Robin shakes her head, the pressure still building. Her eyes find the window again and she can’t pull them away. “No, I…he- the storm…”
Nancy moves their joined hands into her lap, cupping them with her other hand, and shifts in her seat so she’s facing Robin more directly. “Will you look at me?”
It takes Robin a few seconds to rip her eyes from the window, but she manages it. Nancy’s face is completely soft now, with nothing but concern lacing the shape of her brow and lips.
Robin becomes aware of her own panting. She’s not sure how long she’s been panting. She’s suddenly very concerned she never stopped panting after getting in the car.
“It’s ok. We’re going to be ok. We’re safe in here and in a few minutes it’ll let up enough for me to finish driving us back to my house, where you’re going to stay the night.”
Robin keeps staring at her, entranced and ensnared by the gentle look in Nancy’s eyes. “Yo-your house?”
Nancy nods. “You don’t want to be alone in the storm, right? Bad memories?”
Robin swallows thickly, stomach churning at being caught. At being seen. But still completely unable to pass up the opportunity at safety, especially safety with Nancy. “Yes, please. Please. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. You’re fine.” Nancy nods and continues holding her hand, thumb stroking back and forth on the delicate skin of her wrist.
The tension in Robin’s chest eases incrementally. She doesn’t move her eyes from Nancy. She doesn’t look outside. The urge to ramble bubbles up again a few times, but Nancy just keeps stroking her hand and whispering to her that she can relax, that it’s ok, and the words dry up.
Eventually, Nancy glances out the window again and nods. “I want you to keep your eyes on me. Keep your hand on me here.” She moves Robin’s hand to her forearm and squeezes the fingers down, asking her to grip. “I’m going to drive us back now, ok?”
Robin nods back. Her fingers squeeze down gently. She keeps her eyes on Nancy.
Nancy is tense and stiff again as she finishes the drive back to her house, but it’s not as bad as it was initially.
They make it back to the house.
They make it inside.
After a few minutes of awkward changing, drying their hair, and cleaning up (Nancy finally washes the ruined makeup off her face), they end up sitting curled next to each other on Nancy’s bed. The rain is still pounding outside, but it’s quieter here in the house. Nancy put on some soft music and the warm bubble of the space has started easing the icy grip off of Robin’s chest.
“Steve stays home a lot when there’s a storm,” Robin whispers into the soft space.
Nancy, who still has her hand, squeezes it in response.
“He knows I might show up, but he didn’t today. He probably left before he realized how bad it would be. I know that,” Robin continues.
“But you can’t help but feel extra stressed and maybe a little forgotten about?” Nancy guesses.
Robin nods.
Nancy squeezes her hand again. “You’re always welcome to call me or just come here. Always.”
Robin swallows and turns to look at her. Face still soft. Eyes sad and understanding. “I am sorry about ruining your plans,” Robin says.
Nancy shakes her head and laughs lightly. “I never had any plans, Robin.”