Three's Company Too

'Cause We'll Never Be Wrong

The next day Steve was up early as always because he had to hit the gym to maintain his "godly physique". He wasn't any Billy Hargrove of course, but for Steve that fact only served as rage fueled inspiration to always work out and push himself to his limits. When he came back, Robin's door was still closed and it seemed like she was still asleep so he started whipping up some breakfast.

Robin hadn't been able to sleep at all. The whole ghost thing was really creeping her out so she stayed up all night, keeping her mind busy with a book and failing to absorb any of the information on the pages. She had glimpses of scenes and remembered some dialogue, but she was too shaken. By the time she passed out from exhaustion, birds were chirping. Steve fucking around in the kitchen startled her awake as soon as she got some REM.

Robin's door opened slightly and she peeked out, allowing the light from the hall to filter into the darkness along with the scent of eggs, bacon and coffee. The ambient sounds of a rubber spatula scraping along a pan reached her ears. Her hunger outweighed her grogginess and she pushed her bedcovers away, stretching and groaning. She hesitated before finally sauntering out into the hallway, rubbing her eyes.

"Rough night?" Steve prodded her gently, finishing up assembling a plate of eggs, bacon and some hash browns before setting it down on the table.

Robin took a seat the table, still rubbing her eyes. "A little. You know how it goes, first night in a new place. Kinda makes you overthink all the new noises you have to get used to."

Steve poured some coffee into a mug with a kitten as the handle and set it down in front of her with the sugar and creamer. "True," he agreed, "I had a hard time my first week, but I think I was probably a little co-dependent. Still am. Probably..." 

Thoughts of Nancy came to mind and he looked sad for a moment, but decided to hide it by drinking his coffee. Robin looked like she wanted to ask about it, but it was way too early for all those emotions. So she just drank her coffee too.

Steve laughed bitterly, taking his seat across from Robin and starting to dig into his plate.

"Alright, what happened?" Robin asked, sighing. She knew where this was going, but clearly he needed to get this off his chest.

"I wasn't supposed to rent this place by myself, so maybe it would have been easier to settle in if Nancy didn't flake on me," he explained as he made sure a morsel of each item on his plate was at the end of his fork, "It's a process. Maybe me moving you in here was a bad way to cope with it, but I think it's better than inviting some other chick in here and having that go south." He takes the bite of his food and chews for a moment.

Robin was making mental notes of everything he said. She wanted to question his wording, thinking herself to be a burden.

"Nothing'll get weird with you, and I figure I'm helping you out," he chews his food as he speaks and shrugs as he swallows. "I also don't trust any of my guy friends not to be fucking gross or insane. Imagine Eddie fucking this place up."

Robin laughed at the idea. She supposed that Steve was genuinely being a good friend. "Is it really helping you to let me stay here, Harrington?"

"Yeah you're my best friend, I wouldn't want to share my space with someone I don't know like the back of my hand," Steve said with a smile, taking another gulp of coffee. "You seemed like you were bottling a lot of stuff up having to hide from your parents and live by their rules. Now you can do whatever you want!" he poked around on his plate some more, "Within reason."

"Right. I can do whatever I want now. I think I actually have the chance to finally live. And you're helping me do that," Robin realized aloud. 

"See? This is the start of the rest of your life, kid!" Steve said with a smile as he continued to eat. 

The idea of this being a big turning point in Robin's life actually made her feel warm and fuzzy. Steve was being a lot kinder than he had any right to be, it made a genuine smile spread across her blushing face, "You're right. This is exactly what I needed right now."

Steve's smile grew wider, almost making his cheeks sore. He was known as Mr. Fix-it for many reasons, but he did genuinely like to extend a helping hand when needed and he would never take advantage of anyone, even a stranger. "I wanna see you do great things with your life, you hear? And if I can help even a liiiittle tiny bit, I will. You're good people. Maybe you'll be able to pay it forward some day," he said.