#obviously this doesn't apply if you dont love your friends- dont feel obliged to tell people you love them if you dont or dont want to etc

[big-urchin-energy]

always bugs me when people go like. wildly out of their way to no romo steve and robin's relationship. like. we all get it, we all know it's platonic (with a capital p) but some people seem like. actively worried that steve saying i love you to robin or robin calling them soulmates is going to be read as romantic? like we all make fun of straight people being like haha i love you dude- no homo! and yet everyone is doing it with stobin?

you don't have to be like ooh steve and robin are platonic soulmates! they love* each other (*as friends)! they're platonic with a capital p! you have just say steve and robin love one another, that they're soulmates (if you insist) without tripping over yourself to make sure some weirdo doesn't think you ship them. it's so exhausting to feel as though people have to diminish their relationship or call attention to how ~weird~ it is for a man and a woman to be friends, by specifying that it's not romantic, because we all know! we all know it's platonic!

steve and robin have established IN CANON that there are no romantic feelings between them, that they both understand and accept this, and while other people might not get it, they don't care. they only have to specify to people because the other characters cannot fathom a reason they wouldn't be dating, but steve and robin know, so steve and robin do not have to justify their feelings to themselves, and likewise, we as the audience also know and understand this, so we as the audience do not need to justify that within ourselves either!

it's not weird to tell your friends you love them! like what are we trying to achieve here by saying you *have* to specify you mean it platonically every time? romantic love is not the default, even between a man and a woman, no one is out here reading your fic and getting to a bit where steve is like 'i love robin' and going onto a rage because you didn't go "platonically! it's platonic! obviously i mean it as friends and not as romantic partners!" you shouldn't need to do that! do you fucking go to your friends and go "hey i love you but not in a romantic way" every time? do you go "oh yeah me and my friend? totally platonic. no romantic feelings here between me and my friend"?? i mean maybe but it just screams a lack of trust and understanding idk

go tell your friends you love them but like. be normal about it. because it's not weird to love your friends. jesus.