#but then i wrote over 20k just leading up to this scene oops

[museumgiftshoperaser]

Continuing my Steve Is Aromantic Agenda on AO3 :)

***

“Maybe try finding someone who you… I don’t know? Actually enjoy spending time with?”

Robin’s pulled her legs up on the table as she stares at the clock over the door. They’re both waiting until the last possible moment to open up the shop.

“I just need to find someone who I care about as much as I care about you,” he says and Robin raises an eyebrow. “But who I also want to have sex with.”

She laughs at that. Steve’s not quite sure why she’s laughing, but he joins in anyway.

“I’m right, though!” he says. “Isn’t that what you had with Tammy?”

“Steve, I was like, in love with her,” she says.

“Yeah exactly! She’s your friend and you also want to see her naked!”

Robin frowns and turns away from him. “You’re not funny,” she says and something in the atmosphere shifts very quickly. “That’s fucked up, Steve.”

“What?” He sits up straighter and tries to catch the expression on her face. “What did I say?”

“I’m in love with her. Love. I thought you understood that?”

“I do?”

“Then why are you making it sounds like it’s some weird sex thing?” There are actual tears in her eyes now. Fuck. “I’m not some fucking pervert, Steve.”

“No, no, no! I know that,” He says quickly. “Of course I know that. I’m sorry!”

Robin rubs a tear from her eye and Steve hates himself for making her cry. He doesn’t quite understand what he did, though, but he knows he should apologize.

“What… What are you sorry for, Steve?” Robin’s tone is gentle all of a sudden and when her eyes land on his it’s like she’s staring right into his soul.

“I… I’m just,” he stutters. “I shouldn’t have said that… The way I said it…?”

“Is that how you felt about Nancy?” she asks. “Like she was your friend, but you also wanted to sleep with her?”

Yes?

“No!” Steve says because he can tell he’s supposed to.

“With Eddie?”

“Well I wasn’t in love with Eddie!” he says because that’s the conclusion he’s come to. “I barely knew him in the grand scheme of things. We just… It was complicated.”

“But you had feelings for him, right?” Robin asks. “Like… That’s how you figured out you were bi?”

“I definitely had feelings for him.” Right? Yeah. No, he totally did. “I’ve never felt that way about anyone else. Before or since. But I’ve also never felt for anyone else what I felt for Nancy.”

“What feelings?”

“Huh?”

“When you say you had feelings for them...” Robin asks. “What feelings?”

...

Find the whole thing on AO3 here!