#and steve doing the same with some of eddie‘s music | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

beep-beep-robin · 1 year

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robin stops meeting up with the others, rarely even picking up the phone when steve calls.

they think she‘s angry at them for some reason, the last time she was with all of them she barely spoke, giving them all the silent treatment. she left early, asking steve to drive her home.

then eddie starts acting the same way. he withdraws himself from everything they have planned, shutting himself in at home.

steve and nancy are at a loss. the kids are confused. did the two of them have some secret pact to leave them all in the sand that they didn‘t know about?

so nancy sends steve over to their places - after all he knows robin best, and she doesn‘t feel like her presence would make eddie very talkative. and steve had gotten a bit closer to eddie in the past few weeks anyways.

he goes to eddies place first, because for some reason he thinks he might get an explanation out of eddie a bit quicker than if he went to robins first. he also kind of wants to give robin a bit more time.

but wayne opens the door, and he stops steve when he says he‘s here for eddie. tells him he needs some time alone now. but steve‘s had it. he wants to know what‘s going on with his friends, and he wants to know now.

he gently pushes past wayne, who doesn‘t budge too much, but steve makes it work. wayne on his tail, he walks down the hallway, softly knocking on eddie‘s door.

no reply. slowly, he pushes open the door. and there‘s eddie, on his bed, a huge pile of blankets on his shoulders, chewing on his hair and rocking back and forth with a bunch of dnd books spread out in front of him.

after two “hi eddie”‘s, he finally looks up at steve. waves at him. wayne reaches steve, telling him he should‘ve just left it alone. but eddie shakes his head, nods it into the direction of steve and then the room, as if to beckon him over.

so steve walks in, wayne throwing a questioning look at eddie, to make sure he‘s fine - a nod, and the door closes.

it doesn‘t take steve long to figure out that eddie doesn‘t, or even can‘t, really talk right now. so he just sits with him, eddie occasionally pointing out something interesting in his book to steve, and steve takes it all in with genuine curiosity. he enjoys hearing about things eddie likes.

after a while, eddie huddles in a bit closer to him. eddie’s just laying there, eyes tracing over the bumps and patterns on the ceiling, and steve almost falls asleep, basking in eddies presence.

then he remembers he was supposed to visit robin as well - and if robin‘s feeling anything like eddie seems to be feeling right now, he wants someone to check up on her.

he can‘t really leave eddie though - if the look on his face when steve got up to call nancy on the munson‘s phone was any indication. so he asks her to go check in with robin, make sure she‘s alright - that he doesn‘t think eddies withdrawal has anything to do with him not wanting them around anymore.

nancy doesn‘t mind. she likes robin, is comfortable around her. more comfortable than she‘d ever really felt around anyone, except for barb maybe. so that brings her to robins room, her parents having let her in.

no sense for boundaries, nancy noted when they simply threw open robins door, revealing her on the floor next to her bed. she‘s wearing headphones, music blasting so loudly that nancy can understand every word.

nancy closes the door behind her, and robin‘s eyes snap upwards, noticing her for the first time. nancy gives a little wave, feeling bad about intruding.

robin stops clicking her nails together, sliding the headphones off and resting them around her neck. she quietly greets nancy, telling her to come sit. she‘s reluctant, nancy notices. almost like her whole body adjusted and got more stiff once she saw nancy.

sitting down next to robin, she confronts her head on, in a soft voice, worried about overstepping. it seems like robins struggling to get her words out, brain too occupied to put her thoughts into sentences, she tells nancy.

nancy encourages her to go back to her music. tells her it‘s fine, she can go. robin seems upset about seemingly having to tell the truth, but she nods. nancy smiles understandingly at her, leaving the room.

she gets caught up talking to robin‘s parents, they complain about robin always having phases like this and that they don‘t understand why she doesn‘t just snap out of it. why she can‘t just be normal. nancy resists the urge to punch them in the face.

about half an hour later robin calls downstairs. when nancy walks back into her room, she says she heard her downstairs talking to her parents - that she could try to explain now.

nancy sees her trying to restrain herself from moving again. she tells her it‘s okay, sits opposite from her on the floor. asks her if she can try something that she used to do with mike, gently takes her hands, and starts rocking them back and forth together. it makes robin‘s face light up. nancy thinks she’ll keep rocking back and forth forever if it makes robin this happy.

then robin explains. she says it sounds dumb, but that it all got too much. the whole vecna thing, people getting injured. nancy interrupts, tells her it‘s not dumb, that they all were exhausted after everything.

but robin continues, explains that that wasn‘t all of it. she says she also got overhelmed by all the change. no offense to nancy, but for example, her and eddie suddenly being so close to steve, in nancys case, again. the change in her and steves routines, nancy and eddie being included in almost everything now.

the way her whole daily routine got thrown off during the vecna time, and even afterwards, with the hospital visits and everything. and that she feels horrible about that disturbing her, when her friends were literally in the hospital, recovering from life threatening injuries.

it all only hit her a few days ago. she didn‘t really get what was going on at first, but that she‘s had phases like this before. that it feels like everything in her just shuts down, she can‘t interact with anyone anymore, she just wants to be alone. can‘t do anything but listen to music and watch her favorite movie over and over. and that she can‘t keep her body still. needs to release all the anxiety somehow.

nancy smiles softly, thanks her for telling her all of that. says she can‘t relate to it, but that she thinks it‘s a very plausible reaction to everything. that she knows some people have a harder time adjusting to change, mentions the many times she‘s seen mike reacting almost the same way.

robin smiles at that, a grateful expression on her face. she thanks nancy. says she‘s sorry for any misunderstanding she might‘ve caused. nancy tells her to never apologize about doing what her body needs her to do, asks if she can hug her. robin agrees, throwing her arms around nancy. they end up hugging for a while, nancy adjusting her grip so it‘s tight enough.

later, when steve and nancy catch each other up on what‘s going on with their friends, they both have almost the same exact stories to tell (of course, with robin and eddies permission). from now on, the other two know they can always reach out when they want someone with them during times like these, but that they also will never be judged if they retreat for a while.

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