You Make Me Feel Safe

Part Nine

Word Count: 4,775 (the longest so far!!)

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Robin spends the whole day anxious as fuck.

Her and Steve are working, as usual, with Nancy spending the day with them as well. Nancy doesn't usually, preferring to hang out with Robin when they're alone instead or at someone's house where they don't have to be scared to hold hands or kiss.

But today is special. Well, not really special. More like, important. For whatever reason she had at the time, Robin had decided that today, she would come out to her parents. She'd decided that she wanted both Steve and Nancy there as emotional support. Because of that, and telling them both, they were holding her to her word to make sure she actually goes through with the plan.

She knows that neither of them are forcing her to come out, it isn't like that at all. But they understand that even though she jokes about changing the plan and has been visibly nervous the past few days, she really does want to do this. So Nancy and Steve make a point of joking back that she has to go through with this and they'll be with her the whole time. Though they also genuinely add in every now and then that it is ultimately Robin's choice, and if she really gets too anxious, she can genuinely decide not to go through with this.

Her and Nancy have been together for 3 months now. Which means it's only been around 2 months since Nancy's birthday and slightly before that when she came out to her own parents. Of course, it isn't a competition at all. Robin is so unbelievably happy that Nancy's parents were accepting — her dad being as accepting as he could be anyways. She will never not be happy for her girlfriend and any achievement she gets or anything that makes her happy.

But... Robin can't help but feel a little bit jealous. Nancy figured herself out relatively quickly, and managed to come out— to her parents and basically all their friends. Yeah, that was an accident, but nothing else was. Robin has known who she is sexuality wise for a few years now. Yet, it took until last year to even come out to Steve and she had to do that with Russian drugs in her system. She swears she's heard some of her parents friends occasionally mention being gay or bisexual with no hostility back, and yet she still hasn't come out to them. Hell, she didn't even come out to Nancy first. It was Nancy that told Robin she liked her and thus gave Robin the courage to admit the same back.

She pushes all of this aside though, as best as she can. Focusing on work is the best thing she can do right now, as letting her own mind think about everything will not help feeling anxious. Nor will going through sentences and playing out what will happen in her head help either, she knows that. So she just focuses even harder on whatever task is at hand, to the point that she keeps not hearing Steve or Nancy talking to her, just to ignore her worries.

At some point, though, she feels a light hand on her shoulder. Robin turns, sighing, knowing it's Nancy before she even has to look at her face filled with concern.

   "Hey, are you sure you're okay? It's unlike you to focus so much that Steve and I can't even get through to you when we try to talk. You really don't have to come out to them today if you don't want to—"

   "That's the problem though, Nance," Robin interrupts, muttering a small 'sorry', before continuing. "I really really do want to. So... so I'm trying to distract myself as best as I can so I don't get too worried that I decide not to, 'cause I have to do this. You were able to come out to your parents and... and I know mine have had friends before that are like me too so surely I should be able to do the same, right?"

Nancy looks around the store and Robin follows her gaze at the few customers in the store, a couple currently being talked to by Steve. "How about we go to the back for a few minutes? I'm sure Steve won't mind if you take a break now, right? He'll understand."