The decision had been easy: Robin knew she wasn’t much of a fighter and that she would’ve been a hindrance more than anything else, so she’d packed up alongside all of the children and other non-fighters and headed for an island off shore. It was the first time she’d been there, and she really would’ve preferred to visit under other circumstances. It would’ve been a lot more beautiful and relaxing if she didn’t have so many other things to worry about.
Like Steve. Like Chloe, Sansa, Charlie, everyone else she’d met, the fate of all of their worlds. Robin was a bundle of anxiety, waiting around for what she assumed would be bad news.
Unable to sit still, she took off away from the crowd and found a secluded stretch of sand. She kicked off her shoes and sat down, tucking her knees up to her chest. There, with the sun high in the sky and the waves lapping gently against the shore, it was a little easier to forget about everything else that was happening.
Chloe didn’t really know what had possessed her to stay behind when everyone with as many fighting skills as hers had bailed, but she couldn’t go. This place had changed her, it had made her want to go from an asshole to someone who helped, because here nobody knew who she was, or what a fuck-up she’d been and strived to be. Here, she could stop being a coward too - and she wanted to. Being as she had no real fighting skills, though, medical and logistics had been where she’d fit in better and she should have stayed there if she had known that taking a more active approach to “helping” would make her useless for good.
She had gone into the collapsed nightclub with the intention to get people out of there just like she hadn’t done in Arcadia Bay - but Max had, because of course she had. Shit had collapsed all around her and Chloe had been too freaked out and in her own head about guilt to do anything. This was her redemption, or something.
And then debris had fallen on her, busted up her face and shoulders and broken her arm and it had sucked. It didn’t feel like anything, really. Chloe’s best guess had been that either the swelling was keeping real pain from happening, or adrenaline was. With one less arm and one fucked up face, she’d given in and gone to Mako, where the first order of business was to find Robin. Fuck settling in. She’d asked around and finally been pointed towards where someone had seen her go a while ago.
“Hey spy kid. Having a nice vacation on mermaid island?” She called.
Startled by the sound of a voice speaking to her, Robin jumped -- and then she saw who it was. “Chloe!” She scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could and, not caring what it looked like, she ran across the sand towards her. She stumbled more than once on the sand and skidded to a stop in front of Chloe. She’d intended on giving the other girl a hug, but she had to stop herself when she saw Chloe’s arm and got a closer look at her face.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Was that a stupid question? Robin thought. “God, I was so worried.”
Chloe couldn’t help a smile from coming on at seeing Robin scrambling to get to her, stumbling and everything. She had braced for the hug, and felt a little disappointed when it hadn’t happened, but she wasn’t going to initiate it. Like hell.
“Peachy. I only had part of a building fall on me. A really small part, if you think proportionally.” She smirked. “You were worried about me? Awww. Softie.”
“Shut up,” Robin grumbled, feeling heat rise to her cheeks. She wasn’t really mad at being called soft; she was just embarrassed that it was obvious, and nervous that the way she felt was one-sided.
She smacked Chloe’s other shoulder lightly, playfully. “And anyway, like you wouldn’t have been worried about me if a building fell on me.” Right? Chloe would care, right? “Broken arm? You’re lucky that’s all that happened.”
“Would I?” Chloe teased. Of course she would, but she probably wouldn’t say it out loud. Then she pulled up her shirt, revealing purple marks on her ribs. “Bruised ribs too. Had a fucked up jagged rock fall on my shoulder too, there’s that scar. But the people who were there first… they had it way worse. I just wanted to get them out. Fuck me I guess.”
She was visibly annoyed at the way things had shaken out, eyes cast down as she shook her head. “So anyway, what’s been happening here? Partying it up with the mermaids?”
When Chloe showed her the bruises, Robin started to stretch one of her hands out like she meant to touch her, but she caught herself quickly and pulled her hand back. It wasn’t a side show, she scolded herself. Chloe was really, actually hurt.
“Um.” She pushed her hand through her hair, an anxious habit she couldn’t get rid of. “Just waiting, really.” She knew that sounded lame, but it was true. It’d been kind of torturous, honestly - though obviously not real torture, because she knew what that was like. But it’d been hard, waiting for what Robin assumed would only be bad news. “I think it’d be easier to wait if we did get to party, because at least we’d have a distraction. I’ve been trying to just, keep an eye on the kids, help out wherever I can… but it’s mostly just a lot of waiting.”
Instinctively recoiling, Chloe was glad Robin hadn’t actually touched her. She was acting tough but her body hurt like a bitch, or at least the upper part of it did. Come to think of it, getting a hug might not have been the best idea either. She tried to cross her arms and gave up, sighing deeply. “Shit’s pretty bad out there. I think people died at the club.” She shook her head, visibly distressed. “I thought with all this warning there’d be more preparation. They caught us with our dicks in our hands, man.”
After a moment, Chloe attempted a shrug. “So let’s party. There’s bound to be something we can do to take our minds off of this shit we can’t do anything about.”
It didn’t feel right to party when people had died and when she knew other people had to be really hurt, but if Chloe wanted to do something fun, Robin knew she wouldn’t resist. There wasn’t anything she could do about everyone else. There was something she could do about Chloe’s mood, though. Hopefully.
Robin didn’t know if it was going to be the right choice. What she did know was that she’d been holding back. She’d been second-guessing herself and questioning every moment, not considering how quickly everything could change.
So she took a deep breath and stepped forward to kiss Chloe before she lost her nerve again. She kept it light, afraid that too much pressure would hurt, but it was enough to get the point across.
Of course Chloe was startled, stiffening up when Robin kissed her. But this had happened before, usually on a dare, and it felt good but brief both times. Maybe third time was the charm. The sad thing was, she was too fucked up to wrap her arms around Robin, so all she could do was take her hands into her one good hand as she closed her eyes. She didn’t deepen the kiss too much for now, and broke it with a smirk.
“Damn girl you really know how to make wartime feel miles away.” She teased, then frowned. “Almost forgot about all the bruises. Almost.”
“I’ll have to try harder next time,” Robin answered, trying to sound more confident and sure of herself than she really felt, “to make you forget.” Chloe hadn’t pushed her away, and the hand-holding was probably a good sign, but she’d never done anything like that before so she had no idea what might really happen now that she had. She’d wanted it to be magical. She really hoped it was special in some way.
Her stomach was still fluttering, so she squeezed Chloe’s hand to try to give herself something else to think about. “I just kept thinking, something really bad could happen and I hadn’t -- you wouldn’t have known how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
“They say practice makes perfect, so you should practice a lot.” Chloe teased. But the humor was short lived, and Chloe got silent and sullen again before long, more so when Robin told her the reasons for kissing her. Still holding the other girl’s hand, Chloe started to walk aimlessly.
“You know, people died in there. At the club. It was a fucking mess. That bullshit people tell you to make peace and tell everyone everything before you can’t anymore… it’s all true. I kinda got a second chance back home but I wouldn’t have if things had been normal and boy did it cost us.” She nudged her elbow into Robin’s side lightly. “So I’m glad you found some balls.”
For a moment, Robin was worried she’d said the wrong thing -- that, maybe, Chloe felt like she only did it because she was desperate and that she wouldn’t have wanted to otherwise -- but she didn’t let go of Chloe’s hand. She really wouldn’t have blamed Chloe for pulling away, but she was really glad she didn’t.
Robin squeezed Chloe’s hand tighter, feeling a chill run down her spine as Chloe described what had happened. They could’ve lost everything before they’d even started. It wasn’t lost on Robin that some people had lost that, and she was so, so lucky. “I’m glad I did, too,” Robin admitted. “Sorry it took me this long.”
Chloe shook her head and turned on her path to stand in front of Robin again. “Don’t say that. Don’t waste time with apologies for not doing this or that or whatever. Just do it.”
There was a loud, unsettling thumping in her heart when she twisted her fingers into Robin’s hair and kissed her, this time (for the first time) actually taking the plunge instead of hinting at wanting to do it and expecting the other one to take the reins. It was maybe a little clumsy, but it was slow and sweet too and when Chloe pulled away she leaned her forehead against Robin’s. “Just… don’t die. Don’t die on me, don’t disappear... Don’t leave me.”
Although she’d thought the earlier kiss was good, that had been nothing compared to the way Chloe kissed her now. It left Robin breathless and shaky in the best possible way. She’d always dreamt about a kiss like that, something that was right out of the pages of a love story. Like something at the climax of a romantic movie, where the music would swell and fireworks would light up the sky behind the couple. That was how it made Robin feel.
She couldn’t promise that she wouldn’t disappear or that something bad would never happen to her. Robin wished she could, but she didn’t want to lie. “I’m right here,” she reminded Chloe instead, lifting one hand to gently cup Chloe’s cheek. That was the best she could do: remind Chloe that she was there and they were alive, and that they could jump into whatever this was hand-in-hand.
“I’m right here.”
Chloe smiled, downturning her eyes. It was still really difficult for her, showing “weakness” like this. Showing you cared for someone only made you weaker to them, they would know they could do any dumb shit to you and you’d likely stick around. She’d done it before. She knew admitting feelings made it hurt more when shit went bad as it always did. But then again, she’d already sort of died for that kind of thing, how much worse could it get? Unless Robin got yanked back to her home all of a sudden but… well. Fuck that. She had already died, Rachel had already gotten kidnapped, killed and buried in a junkyard, Max had already ghosted her completely when she needed her the most.
“Fuck it.” Chloe hugged Robin and forced herself to just bask in the closeness. However, she may or may not have been repeating ‘fuck it fuck it fuck it’ under her breath like a mantra.
Robin was fully aware that there was a lot more to Chloe than she’d seen, and more than Chloe had been willing to share so far. It wasn’t difficult to figure out, but Robin wasn’t one to push. She knew that if she wanted Chloe to open up, it had to be on Chloe’s terms.
The way that Chloe practically melted into her told her that she’d been right to trust that instinct, and Robin wasted no time wrapping her arms around the other girl in return. She tried to be gentle, but what she really wanted to do was bury her face in the other girl’s neck and hold on as tight as she could. She resisted -- mostly. She was close enough that she would’ve been able to smell Chloe’s shampoo, had she not just come from a fight, and that alone was really, really nice.
“Tell me if I’m hurting you, okay?” Robin murmured against Chloe’s ear, because she was unwilling to let go just yet, and the last thing she wanted to do was hurt Chloe more. “‘Cause I don’t plan on letting go for a while.”
Chloe had completely forgotten about her ribs when she had hugged Robin, and the raising of her arms had soon reminded her. The pain eventually made her lower from around her shoulders to around her waist, forehead gently pressing into Robin’s shoulder.
“It’s cool.” She replied. Robin was being gentle and besides, when did Chloe shy away from a little pain? “I don’t either.”