Work Text:
She goes to Billy Hargrove's funeral.
It's weird and it's not like she ever even spoke to him; but, she figures, as one of the handful of people who know how he really died, she ought to do it. He was a total douchebag but he died a hero and barely anyone in Hawkins even knows. No one else besides them ever will know.
So many people died that it's taken an entire goddamn month to lay Billy Hargrove to rest because the only pastor in town has been so busy doing that many funerals. An entire month. Billy isn't the first funeral by far - but he's not even the last. There's still several more planned after this, and it's insane. There's literally a funeral every single day.
So Robin heads to Billy Hargrove's funeral and immediately stands by Steve Harrington, who she figures is probably there for similar reasons as herself. They don't say anything to each other but there's a look of understanding that passes between them. And somehow midway through the service, Robin finds herself gripping onto Steve's hand or maybe he started gripping onto her hand, but either way they hold hands and watch, together, as Billy Hargrove is put to rest. It could have been them but they're still here somehow and it's still frightening how close to death they both were and even more prevalent in this moment because someone else is dead - a lot of people are dead. She and Steve are still alive somehow and sometimes she can barely believe they survived.
The service wraps up. They each drop a rose on Billy Hargrove's casket and walk away.
"Are you staying for the wake?" Robin asks Steve.
He nods. "Yeah. You?"
"No," She answers and tries not to feel guilty when Steve turns his head and looks at her.
"Oh," He says nonchalantly, looking away once more. "Cool." No judgement. He makes it sound so normal like they're discussing the goddamn weather or something, and it helps to soothe her nerves. She didn't realize she was waiting for him to ask why she isn't staying until he didn't ask, like it's that simple.
"See you around." She smiles and takes back her hand.
"Yeah," Steve nods. "Yeah. Actually - " He frowns and Robin looks at him curiously. "Dustin wants to get together sometime and introduce us to Suzie but only if we 'behave' ourselves." Steve rolls his eyes.
Robin smiles. "So... does that exclude a reenactment of their duet?"
He snorts. "Uh, yeah, that's exactly what it means."
"Bummer." Robin monotones.
Steve grins. It's probably an inappropriate expression to be wearing while walking on the grass at a cemetery right after a funeral, but - after everything that happened - neither of them give a shit anymore about what they're supposed to be like.
"Total bummer. But it'd make Dustin happy." It's obvious how much importance he places upon that idea. It's kind of cute but mostly weird because she still can't wrap her head around how what Steve actually is like is so different to how she thought he was like. She can't get over how much of a dingus Steve Harrington actually is and how she never realized it in high school because everyone said he was cool and everyone just accepted it and admired him from afar. Up close, however, it's a totally different story. A bizarre story. He's so uncool that Robin almost sometimes can't remember what it was like when she had thought him to cool - except she can, which makes it even more bizarre.
"Ugh, fine," Robin groans, as if Steve had been wheedling her to agree. "We'll meet your child's girlfriend."
"Great," Steve says and doesn't even refute that she called Dustin his kid. "I'll let Dustin know."
"I can hardly wait," She deadpans. She's only mostly joking, which probably is another indication of how much her life has changed since the beginning of summer.
Robin had thought that the weirdest thing about attending Billy Hargrove's funeral...would be the funeral. Yeah turn out? It's not.
The weirdest thing about attending Billy Hargrove's funeral is that Nancy Wheeler accosts her in the parking lot as she's about to grab her bike from the rack and leave.
It's surreal. Maybe not evil Russians in an underground base surreal or a giant monster attacking while Billy Hargrove tries to stop it surreal, but - it's still pretty surreal.
"I know it's not any of my business," Nancy says quickly, as if trying to ensure she has the first word and not Robin, and then she continues on talking despite being aware that she has no business in saying whatever she's about to say, "But I don't understand how you can be dating Steve after what happened."
Everything about this has taken Robin so entirely off guard. Prissy Nancy Wheeler suddenly talking to her after Billy Hargrove's funeral, the assumption that she and Steve are dating - what the hell - the weird warning - threat? - from his ex-girlfriend. She can't think of any other response except, "What?"
"I mean, I just don't get it." Nancy continues, frowning at her in disappointment like she's done something wrong. "Don't you want answers? How can you be with someone who just ignores it? I mean, Steve acts like everything is normal and - and everything is fine. Don't you want him to explain or - or at least just admit that something actually happened?"
Robin thinks about the way that when she had been terrified, Steve was what had kept her together. She thinks about them almost dying and them dryly cracking jokes in the midst of their terror because otherwise they would cry or scream or - She thinks about the moment between them when there was nothing more frightening than possibly losing the person that she had went through hell with as she told him that, no, she did not like him back and that she liked girls.
She can never forget Steve's moment of silent contemplation and how he then proceeded to act like everything was normal and like everything was fine.
What Nancy Wheeler views as Steve's worst quality, Robin believes is one of his best.
"I don't need him to admit anything," Robin says, and Nancy's pretty face creases in confusion. "I know what happened. I'll never forget. I don't need him to tell me."
Nancy stares at her, frowning and confused and disappointed, and it's at this point that Robin thinks maybe that's the only expression Nancy Wheeler's face is capable of making. "But," She presses, seemingly surefire in the fact that she's right and Robin is wrong, "Don't you want him to stop pretending?"
"Pretending what?" Her laugh sounds more like a scoff. "I don't get it. What exactly is it about Steve that is so unforgivable?"
Nancy opens her mouth but doesn't say say anything. She apparently does have a second facial expression because she looks stunned. "I - I never said he was unforgivable." She says instead of actually answering, and that makes three because now she looks a bit angry.
Robin raises her eyebrows. "You're here talking to me aren't you? Warning me away from him?"
"I'm just concerned is all." Nancy is definitely angry now. "I know how hard it is - after - and I thought I'd warn you because Steve pretending like nothing happened doesn't help and you deserve better."
Nancy has never given a damn about her but now that she thinks Robin and Steve are dating, she's - what? Looking out for her? Protecting her from Steve? Deciding that she deserves better even though she has no idea what Robin is like or what Robin wants.
"That," Robin says, completely unimpressed by this whole situation, "is total bullshit."
Nancy recoils.
"You don't know anything about me," She reminds her. "And it's been a month and you didn't care enough to talk to me until you thought I was dating Steve."
"Wait," Nancy's forehead creases and she's back to her favorite expression: frowning and confused and vaguely disappointed. "You and Steve aren't dating?"
Robin is severely unimpressed.
"Oh. My. God." She breathes out in annoyance.
She can't believe Steve Harrington had the gall to make fun of her crush on Tammy Thompson when Nancy Wheeler is like this. She's never going to let Steve live it down. Except maybe she will because Steve had been in love with Nancy, and then she broke his heart; so it wouldn't actually be that funny to laud it over him that his taste in girls sucks as much as hers does, if not more so.
Nancy Wheeler is still staring at her, confused and frowning and disappointed in the middle of a parking lot while everyone else is at Billy Hargrove wake because he was eaten alive by an inter-dimensional monster.
"I don't see how Steve deciding to not throw my trauma in my face every time we talk is pretending but okay." Robins shrugs. "I guess I'm pretending too because I don't tell him about the time we both almost died - several times, actually - even though we both were there, so I guess I'm just as guilty as you think he is."
And, hey, that makes Nancy once again shift to her third favorite expression: anger. "I didn't say you guys need to talk about it every time you see each other - " She pauses, losing steam, as Robin side steps around her and grabs her bicycle. "What are you doing?"
"Uh, I'm going home." Robin lifts her eyebrows and then scoffs, "Was I supposed to ask your permission first or something?"
Nancy flushes. "No, that's not - look." Her voice turns imploring but she doesn't give any ground; her eyes stay hard and unwavering in the knowledge that she is right and Robin is wrong. "I'm just trying to help."
"Yeah, thanks." She says sarcastically and then slings a leg over her bike seat, and then fixes how her black dress rides up uncomfortably.
Nancy Wheeler stays rooted in the same spot like a creepy, beautiful statue and stares at her intently as she pedals her bike out of the parking lot.
"What the hell?" Robin mutters under her breath.
"So," Robin says from her spot on Steve Harrington's couch as he waits next to the television for the VHS to finish rewinding and grumbles to himself about asshole kids who borrow tapes and don't rewind them afterwards. Which is kind of funny because she knows he doesn't really care since it's his asshole kids because Dustin was there when they were picking out movies and steals Dune from him with the promise to return it after the kids watch it, and so she and Steve had been forced to watch Romancing The Stone - Steve's pick, which was so bizarre because King Steve picking out romantic comedies would never cease to amaze her - while they waited for Dustin to give it back; it ends up being better than she had anticipated and that isn't just because a pretty, nerdy girl is the main character. "Nancy Wheeler warned me not to date you."
"What the hell?" Steve asks, eyebrows lowering. He looks hurt and confused.
"Yeah, what the hell." Robin agrees.
"What does it even matter to her if - " Steve breaks off his sentence and exhales shakily, running one hand through his hair. "I don't understand."
"Me neither." Robin shrugs and tries to ignore the wet sheen to Steve's eyes as he looks away and tries to be subtle about wiping possible moisture away without her noticing. And she's his friend so she allows him to believe she hasn't noticed. "She's dating Byers now, right?"
Steve flinches.
And, okay, Robin isn't an idiot. Steve had said he wasn't in love with Nancy anymore but: that might not be true or, even if he wasn't in love with her anymore, he still might not be over her. Because that? That was very, very telling. There definitely is still some sort of feelings on Steve's end, whether he wants to admit it or not.
"Girls are the worst," Robin offers sympathetically.
Steve looks at her, startled. His eyes are still kind of wet.
She waits.
"Yeah," His smile is rough at first but it smoothes out with sincerity a moment later. "Yeah, girls suck."
"Yeah, I really don't need to hear about your wet dreams," Robin says dryly and lifts an eyebrow.
Steve Harrington flushes hard and fast and red. "Jesus Christ, Robin, I didn't mean it like that."
She looks at his mortified face and cannot reconcile the suave heartthrob they all called King Steve with this version of Steve - bumbling and bashful and moronic. The contrast is astounding.
The VCR stops rewinding with a click, having caught up to the beginning of the tape, and Steve gives one final wipe across his face before he presses the play button.
He sits down on the couch next to her and get comfortable. "So, what's this movie about?"
The subject change is super unsubtle since Steve had already asked about Dune while at the rental store, but she can take a hint, especially one as obvious as this.
"It's based on a novel - " She starts to explain, and Steve groans.
"Ugh, you didn't say that earlier." He grabs his bowl of popcorn from the floor and settles it in his lap.
"Well, yeah, that's because I know you can't read."
"Real funny," He rolls his eyes.
"I thought so," She shrugs and leans in to settle her head upon his shoulder.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Steve asks, sounding alarmed like she's doing something so weird that she might be an alien in disguise, Starman style. She's pretty sure Steve hasn't seen Starman but Steve hasn't seen most movies. Mostly, she speculates, because he doesn't like watching them by himself and until recently he didn't really have anyone to watch them with. But now? She hangs out with him frequently - and there's not really much else to do besides watch movies because Hawkins, when not subjecting its citizens to inter-dimensional terror, death, and devastation, is boring as hell. Dustin hangs out with them sometimes - and he's clearly Steve's favorite of his kids - but has mostly been busy reconciling with the rest of Steve's children because they're all always together all the time doing something and rarely have time for Steve anymore. It's kind of sad, in a way, since Robin knows that those kids are Steve's only friends besides her, so like, she feels bad. That's not why she hangs out with Steve - the two of them really are friends now - but it definitely helps her choose between hanging out with fellow band members and her best friend who knows she likes girls and has accepted her.
"Getting comfortable?" She answers like Steve's an idiot; he kind of really is, to be honest, but Robin doesn't mind that as much as she used to, now that they're friends. "It's a long movie."
Steve groans in despair at that news. But he doesn't make her move off of him and lets her use him as a pillow. He's not even weird about it, even though he had a crush on her not too long ago. He just grumbles periodically to himself and scowls while she steals his popcorn.
He falls asleep barely thirty minutes into the movie.
Robin sighs and outright steals the popcorn from him before it can fall off his lap and spill. Besides, she thinks as she keeps the whole bowl for herself and eats it while Steve gets some much-needed rest, they both deserve it.