Chapter Text
Robin is rushing around the video store putting away vhs tapes. She’s in a fast-pace flow, only focusing on what tapes go where. She hears the door open but pays no attention to it and speedwalks past the front desk. Bumping into someone, tapes fall from her hands to the floor.
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry I—,” she pauses, “Nancy?” Robin bends down to pick up the mess.
“I was just popping in to drop off Steve’s lunch.”
Steve runs out from the back, “did I hear my lunch is here?” He begins to walk over.
“You couldn’t get it yourself Steve?” Robin says as she places the tapes on the counter behind her.
“I didn’t want to.” He says plainly as he grabs his food.
“Doofus.” She playfully punches his shoulder.
“Slow day today?” Nancy directs at Steve.
“Yeah, Mondays are usually pretty slow.” Robin responds.
Nancy kind of gives her a glare.
Robin had a sense that Nancy didn’t really like her. I mean I didn’t matter right? She knows that she's awkward and clumsy and that she talks too much and too fast, which can come off as annoying. And Nancy doesn’t really know her. The only time they’ve been around each other was when they were running from a giant flesh spider that was trying to kill them. Then when they were escaping from the mind prisons that Vecna had put them in. Even then she could tell that Nancy didn’t like the fact that she was in the loop of what really happens in Hawkins. She definitely got through to her when they fought off Vecna together but something still felt off. It felt like they were forced to become friends due to the end of the world circumstances, which is kinda true. Robin had hoped they’d still be friends after everything but Nancy still doesn’t like her. It doesn’t matter though… right? But she’s been thinking about this topic for a while, about Nancy. Maybe it wasn’t as okay as she thought—
“Yo Robin you there?” Steve waves his hand in front of her face.
Robin is ripped out of her own mind and smacks Steve’s hand away. “Get your hand out of my face dingus.”
“Oh would you look at that! You're finally back on earth with us.” He takes a bite of his sandwich.
Robin notices Nancy staring at her, arms crossed. She can feel her cheeks go red so she looks away. “Nancy got you a Melvald’s sandwich?!” Robin snatches the sandwich and takes a bite.
“Aw c'mon man!” Steve says as he steals the sandwich back.
She can hear a giggle from Nancy. Wait hold up. ‘A giggle. From Nancy Wheeler? I made her giggle?’ Robin thought. She realized she was staring at her.
“Robin?” Nancy asked.
“Yeah?” Robin can feel her heart beating faster. Nancy points to her own face and gives a small smile.
“Oh shit.” Robin says as she wipes her face. “Alright well I’ll see you two later.” Nancy says as she turns toward the door. “See you Nance!” Steve calls out to her as she leaves.
“What was that about?” He asks after taking another bite of his sandwich, leaning on the counter.
“What was what?” Robin looks at the vhs tapes on the counter, remembering she still has to put them away.
“You were staring.” Steve smiles.
“I was not!” She grabs the vhs tapes, hopeful it will stop the conversation. She goes to put them away but Steve follows.
“You were so staring! And you were even spacing out.”
Robin doesn’t look at him as she puts the tapes away. “Was not.”
Steve stands there arms crossed, unconvinced.
“She doesn’t even like me, Harrington. Why would I be staring at her?”
Steve lets out a chuckle, “she doesn’t have to like you for you to have a crush.”
Robin stops in her tracks, her face turning red. “Crush!? Are you crazy? I don’t have a crush on Nancy!”
“Oh you so do! Look at your face!”
Robin shoves Steve on the shoulder and walks past him. “Shut up dingus!” She walks over to another shelf and puts the rest of the tapes away.
“You know I can talk to her, put in a good word for you.” He walks to the front counter.
“Don’t you dare!” Robin raises her voice, standing up and going to the counter as well.
“And that’s my confirmation.” He smirks.
“What?”
“My confirmation, you raise your voice when you're lying.”
She crosses her arms, “I raise my voice when I’m pissed, Harrington.”
Steve scoffs. “Yes, but you also turn bright red when you’ve got a crush.”
Robin feels her face run hot and she throws her body back onto a rolling chair, putting her hands to her face. “Uuuggghhhhh, I hate you!” Her chair spins from her slamming into it and Steve grabs the back of the seat, halting it to a stop. Robin’s head resting on the backrest, pulling her hands down to look at him.
“I’ll do you this favor and talk to her.”
“Don’t you dare.” She says through her teeth.
Steve puts his hands up in surrender. “Fine, if you really don’t want me to get you two on good terms then—,” he trails off.
Robin sits up and turns, straddling the chair, her arms on the back of it and her chin on her arms. “I wanna be on good terms with Nancy but—,” she takes a moment to think, “I can feel that she really doesn’t like me. I don’t want to force her to.”
“Who would be forcing her?”
“You, dingus. If you talk to her then she’ll know it came from me and she’ll feel obligated to talk to me.”
Steve leans on the counter, crossing his arms. “Fine then I won’t talk to her.”
Robin drops her face into her arms and lets out a long groan.
“Looks like you're just going to have to man up,” he smiles.
She looks up at him, “I’ve been trying to talk to her but every time I do she seems pissed because I can’t help but ramble and when I realize I’m rambling I back track which leads to more rambling and she gets even more pissed and—,”
“Robin!” Steve interrupts.
She lays her cheek on her arm, “sorry.” There was a long pause.
“You know she talks about you.”
Robin can feel her entire body stiffen. “What?” Her face flushes. “Wha- what does she say?”
Steve scoffs. “And you don’t have a crush on her,” he says in a mocking tone.
“Steve!”
“Okay! She doesn’t say much, just that she thinks you're interesting.”
“Interesting?” Robin's brow raises.
“Yeah, she wants to get to know you, Rob.”
Robin can feel herself stop breathing for a second. “Really?”
“Yes, really. She’s told me how you’re a mystery to her, you're clumsy yet confident and she can’t get a good read on you.
Robin doesn’t respond and thinks about Nancy saying this. ‘A mystery.’
“It’s closing time, go home and think about it. But my suggestion is to stop being a baby and talk to her.” Steve begins the nightly closing routine as Robin sighs and helps Steve.
A few days go by and Robin still hasn’t talked to Nancy. She doesn’t know how to when she doesn’t see her on a daily basis, and they barely talk. Robin is doing her shift at the Family Video while Steve’s in the back room like usual, avoiding doing work.
Max is here too. Her parents have been busy working, trying to scrounge up enough money for hospital bills that they’ve barely been able to actually pay attention to their daughter. Which is normal, but Max needs more attention than before, so Robin decided to be her ‘parental figure’ and help her out. Max is now blind after… what happened. Robin has been taking care of her since Max got out of the hospital. She usually uses a cane to get around but prefers to hold onto someone to navigate her way. Max is sitting on the rolling chair behind the front counter while Robin works.
“I can hear you running around like a mad woman,” Max says.
“I’m not running, I’m... speedwalking. Trying to put away returns.” Robin responds.
“You seem off,” Max states.
Robin freezes for a second, then continues putting vhs tapes away.
“I’m not? I don’t know what you're talking about.” She says knowing exactly what she’s catching onto. Robin hasn’t been able to get Nancy off her mind which is driving her crazy.
Max sighs and reaches her hands in front of her, feeling for the table to rest her head on.
“You okay?” Robin asks.
“Mhm,” was all Max could get out.
Robin stops what she’s doing and walks over to Max. She lifts her head off the table and looks at where she thinks Robin is standing. Robin gently places her hand on Max’s shoulders and turns her, and the chair, towards her. “What’s wrong Max?”
Max sits there in silence, unsure if she should respond or not. Robin squats down to meet at eye level with Max, sliding her hands down to her upper arms. Keeping her hands there for a minute before letting go, “Max?” She pauses for a response. When there is none she continues, “you know you can talk to me.”
“It’s my parents.” Max finally lets out. “They’re fighting again.”
Robin sighs but stays quiet to let Max talk.
“My dad’s pissed that my mom had to move back in just to pay for hospital bills, it’s been hell over there.”
Robin rubs Max’s arm to reassure her, “oh Max. I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have to listen to that.” Max reaches out, Robin meeting her half way, holding each other's arms.
“Can I stay at your house tonight?” She says in almost a whisper.
Robin lets out a little sigh, “it’s that bad, huh?”
Max nods, tears slowly filling her eyes. Robin knows Max isn’t one to cry. ‘It’s bad.’
“Of course you can, you're always welcome.” Robin can see a slight smile pull at the corners of Max’s mouth.
“Thank you,” her voice cracks.
Robin pulls her into a hug, rubbing her back. “You know you're always safe with me kid.” She could feel Max’s body relax and slowly hug Robin tighter. ‘She felt safe’ was all Robin could think about at that moment. She was glad she could be a safe space for someone, for her.
After Max pulls away from the hug, she wipes her tears. “God, enough of the sappy stuff,” she chuckles.
Robin stands up and ruffles Max’s beautiful red hair, “whatever you say kid.” Max has let her hair down rather than putting it in braids lately. Mostly because her parents don’t care to help her and she can’t braid it herself due to recently being blind. Robin looks over at the front door and sees Nancy standing there, watching. She freezes at the sight of her, her eyes going wide. “N-Nancy!” She stutters.
“Hey! I uh, brought Steve’s lunch again.” She holds up a bag of the same Melvald’s order.
Robin rolls her eyes, “oh my god, that man can’t do anything for himself.”
Max spins the chair to face the front door. “Hey Nancy!” She waves, having spun the chair too far and is facing the corner of the room. Robin grabs the chair and points her in Nancy’s direction.
“Fuck!” Max shouts in frustration.
Nancy giggles, “hey Max.” She walks up to the front counter, setting the bag down. “How are you feeling?”
“Well, seeing as I’m out of the hospital and don’t need my wheelchair anymore, I’ll say I’m pretty good. You know, other than the fact that I can’t see.” She responds.
“I thought your eyesight was beginning to come back?” Nancy crosses her arms over the counter.
Robin rifled through Steve’s lunch and took a bite or two of his sandwich before putting it back. ‘God his taste in sandwiches suck.’
“Yeah I guess it is, I can see vague blobs of things. It still sucks though. The doctors said that there was a small chance of my vision fully returning.” Max sighs.
“Well, it’s already doing better than before, so I’ll say that’s a win.” Nancy smiles.
Max shrugs, “guess so.”
“Yo dingus!” Robin calls out. “Come get your sandwich!"
Steve comes out, “thanks again Nance! You're a life saver.”
“Why are you hungry? You haven’t done shit today… or ever.” Robin states.
Steve looks at her sternly. “Ow Buckley. I do a lot around here!” He takes his sandwich out as Robin rolls her eyes. “Hey! Did you eat some of it?”
Robin snickers.
“Not cool! You don’t even like my taste in sandwiches!” He says. Steve knows her too well.
“I don’t, but I love to piss you off.” Robin smiles as she begins to walk off. “Now I’m going to actually do my job.”
Steve swats his hand at her and begins talking to Max.
Nancy decides to walk over to Robin, “hey.”
Robin can feel her heart beat faster, “uh- hi?”
“I saw you talking to Max. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop or anything but, you didn’t notice me walking in and I didn’t want to interrupt.” Nancy crosses her arms.
Robin looked over at Max. “Yeah she’s um, been going through a rough patch. I just wanna be there for her, you know?” She continued putting away tapes. “Her family isn’t exactly the best so, I’m kind of a ‘fill in’,” she does air quotes.
“I can tell she trusts you. It's nice seeing Max happy for once.” Nancy stared at Robin for a minute. “You should call me sometime. I know we haven’t really had a chance to catch up after everything that happened.”
Robin can feel her cheeks begin to turn red. “Uh, yeah. Totally.” Was all she could say.
Nancy smiles, “well I gotta go, Mike needs a ride from the arcade. I’ll see you sometime soon?”
Robin stops breathing. “Yeah.” She says on a huge exhale.
Nancy waves at her and at Steve. “Bye Max!” She calls out.
“Bye Nance!” Max calls back at the wall and Steve turns her. “Shit. Again?”
They all chuckle as Nancy leaves.
Robin heads back over to the counter and Steve clears his throat very loudly.
“What?” Robin asks.
He looks at his sandwich and back at her. Robin freezes realizing that Steve only asked Nancy to pick up his food so they could talk. “You didn’t,” she says angrily.
Steve smirks.
“Didn’t what?” Max asks.
“Nothing.” Robin responded quickly, “our shifts are over anyway, let’s head out Max.”
Steve heads to the back to tell Keith they’re leaving.
Robin heads around the counter to Max and helps her up. Max slips her arm around Robin’s, as she grabs Max’s cane and hands it to her.
“I don’t want it.” She says.
“You’ve gotta get used to it Max,” Robin places it in her hand.
“Why do I need to get used to it if my vision might come back,” she huffs.
“I know you don’t like it but please, just do it for me.”
Max sighs as a sign of defeat.
Steve comes back out swinging his keys around his finger. “You girls ready?”
Robin nods and guides Max outside as she lazily uses her cane.