Spider-Man

Robin has her own frustrating day, and she’s looking forward to seeing Nancy and getting away from her mom. When Robin finally manages to escape to the Wheeler house, she doesn't even ring the doorbell. She just comes right in (Karen had given her permission to, practically encouraged it, even). But before she makes it to the stairs, Karen waves her into the kitchen.

"Nancy had a rough day," Karen starts, and she fills Robin's arms with snacks and a couple of sodas. "You girls try to have some fun, and I'll call you down later for dinner, okay?"

Robin nods and Karen ruffles Robin's hair affectionately.  Robin pulls a face and ducks away like she hates it, but they both know she doesn’t.

When Robin gets up to Nancy's room, struggling to open the door with her arms full of junk food, Nancy is still on the floor by the bed, an arm slung over her face, covering her eyes.

"Mom," Nancy groans, "I said I don't want anything."

Robin dumps their haul on the bed. "Good thing I'm not your mom then," she laughs. "Because I brought so much stuff. Your mom even gave us cookies, Nance. Cookies. Before dinner."

Nancy pouts, lifts her arm up just a little bit to peek at Robin, who was staring down at her, one foot tapping against Nancy's. Robin drops to the ground after a moment, slides up next to Nancy and lays down with her. The floor is hard and Robin wiggles a little bit, one arm bumping Nancy's side, and it kind of tickles.

"How was the doctor?" Nancy asks.

Robin shrugs. "It was fine. Really boring. We had to sit in the waiting room forever." Robin knows the answer but she asks anyway: "how 'bout you? How was your day?"

Nancy groans. "Today was the worst day," she announces.

Robin tries to look over at her, but she's met with the sight of one bony elbow covering up her best friend's face. "Wanna talk about it?" she offers.

Nancy shakes her head and the motion makes her arm come dangerously close to smacking Robin in the face. "No," and she's still feeling so dramatic after her stressful day. "I'm just gonna lay here like this forever," she declares.

Robin hums, taps her fingers against her stomach, fidgets a bit before sitting up abruptly and crawling towards the closet. She starts digging around and just as Nancy is about to look to see what she's doing, a blanket lands right on her face, followed by a pillow.

"Oof," and Nancy finally shows her face, pushing the blanket and pillow off. Robin is already tossing more blankets and pillows out on the floor, every single spare one she can find tucked into Nancy's closet.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

Robin, satisfied she's retrieved all the blankets and pillows in the closet, stands up. "Making a blanket fort," she says like it should be obvious. "The floor is hard. If we're gonna be laying on it forever, it's gotta be more comfortable."

This is one of those little moments where Nancy feels her heart swell up when she looks up at her best friend, and she has to swallow the lump in her throat for the affection and warmth that flood through her. Robin never even asks, never protests, never presses Nancy; Robin just accepts that if Nancy wants to lay on this floor forever, that's what they are going to do.

There are two desk chairs in Nancy’s room, one of them a folding chair supplied by Mr. Wheeler, who was tired of Robin struggling to drag their dining room chairs up and down the stairs. Robin is already in the process of moving their chairs when Nancy starts to sit up. Robin stops her. "Whoa, no way, Wheeler. You're already in your spot, you're glued there forever," she says, affecting a dramatic voice that makes Nancy smile a little bit. Which just spurs Robin on. "Trapped by a very bad day. Alas, you must stay." Robin gives her a grin. "I got this, princess," she says, a little quieter but no less earnest, voice determined.

Nancy's cheeks turn pink and she lays back again.

Robin makes quick work of her fort. She drapes blankets over their chairs, which she sets a little ways from the bed, leaving enough space between the bed and the chairs for both her and Nancy, who stays put, just as she'd been told. Robin ends up having to tie some of the blankets together, big knots in the corners, to reach the bed. She piles all the biggest books she can find on top of the blankets to keep them on the bed. When she's satisfied, she drapes a thinner blanket over top, covering up the open spaces made by the knotted blankets. 

This leaves Nancy hidden away from the world, surrounded on all sides by soft pinks and blues. (Because Robin has chosen some of Nancy's favorites for the inner layer and for the inside.) She hears shuffling outside and then Robin pops her head in, smiling. 

Robin crawls in, bathed in the soft glow of the afternoon sun coming through the soft cream of the sheet facing the window. She has all their snacks in her hands and she drops them by the little entrance, ducks back out quickly to grab their drinks and add them to their pile of Karen-provided goodies.

Robin sits on her knees, ducks a little bit to keep from hitting the top of the fort she's put together in record time. She's holding a pillow, one of the big soft ones that she knows Nancy likes to sink down into. "So, you might have to move a little bit for this part," she bites her lip.

Nancy can't hold back her grin anymore, and she sits up fully.

Robin places the pillow in her hands carefully on the ground, right where Nancy's head had been, and then she grabs another pillow and drops it next to Nancy's. She places the other pillows around the outside of the fort, covering up some of the spots where the blankets didn't quite reach to the floor.

Nancy just sits there and watches her, still smiling despite herself. She shifts, leans back against the bed, tucking a pillow behind her. 

Robin starts working on the remaining blankets next. She lays one out where Nancy had been, tucking the end under the pillow. Nancy is still sitting up from her initial spot, so when Robin tries to smooth out the blanket, it only gets halfway before it meets Nancy's knees.

Robin is determined though, and she gives Nancy a big grin before she starts poking the blanket, trying to tuck it under Nancy's leg. 

Nancy can't stop from laughing before she moves, fixing the blanket herself until she's sitting on it.

Robin puts a blanket down for herself, pushes a couple off to either side.

"Your royal, I dunno, blanket," Robin laughs.

Nancy launches herself at Robin, throws her arms around Robin's shoulders suddenly. Robin tilts back, but steadies herself, returning Nancy's hug, arms wrapped around Nancy's waist.

Robin holds her there. She's never quite sure how long hugs are supposed to go on, so she almost always waits until the other person pulls away before she does. (The other person hugging her is almost always Nancy, and she's in no hurry to pull away from her anyway.)

But not only does Nancy not let go, she drags them both down to the blanket-covered floor until they're both laying down again.

They're facing each other, heads close together despite being on different pillows. Nancy's arm is still draped over Robin's shoulder, so Robin takes this as a cue that she can leave her own arm thrown over Nancy's middle. And she's glad for that, because it all feels right to her. Their legs are pressed together and Nancy's fingers are dancing across her shoulder. And there's nowhere else she'd rather be.

Nancy looks up at her from beneath her lashes, almost shyly. "Thank you, Robin," she whispers, like she's afraid to disturb the comfortable quiet between them.

"Any time," Robin whispers back with a soft smile. There's a warmth blossoming in her chest, spreading through her, filling up her insides until she thinks she's going to stop breathing. A feeling she doesn't know how to name, but one that feels better than any other has, more natural, like air or sunlight or warm summer rain. She grabs it and holds on tightly and hopes it will never end.

They lay there for a moment, and Robin's fingers drum lightly against Nancy's side.

"Hey, Nance?" she keeps her voice quiet to match the moment.

"Hmm?"

"They're homemade cookies," Robin whispers conspiratorially. "Your mom's homemade cookies," she adds, and her fingers squeeze Nancy, tighten for a second. "She gave us cookies before dinner, and I'm afraid if we don't eat 'em soon, she's gonna realize and take them away."

Nancy swats her shoulder, pushing her back a little, but she's still smiling. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Robin sits up, finding the plate of cookies where she left them, and she brings it up between them. As she does this, Nancy grabs a blanket and tosses it over both their legs.

And that's where Karen finds them a little later when she comes to the door of Nancy's bedroom. All she can see are Robin's feet sticking out from beneath a blanket, but she can hear them giggling inside the little fort they've made. They don't hear her slip inside, so she quietly leaves. Downstairs, she puts together two plates of food. She gives Nancy an extra bread roll, covered in garlic butter and parmesan, just the way she likes, and she makes sure that the foods on Robin's plate don't touch. To Michael's jealous protests, Karen heads back to Nancy's room. She'll let them eat in the bedroom just this once (it will end up not being just this once.) 

And it's worth it for the bright smiles on their faces when Karen announces her presence, crouching down and knocking on one of the desk chairs to get their attention. They're all cozy when she peeks in, all wrapped up in each other beneath a blanket. Robin is holding a book, had been reading aloud to Nancy, offering her own running commentary as she did so, just to keep making Nancy laugh.

"I brought dinner up," Karen tells them. Nancy gasps and Robin's eyes widen. "Don't make me regret it," she adds, passing them each a plate. A warning not to make a mess, but she's smiling as she says it.

She pulls the door closed behind her, leans back against it for a moment. 

She hears Robin's voice inside. "Nancy, I love your mom. But I think someone must have replaced her with an alien or something."

"She's not an alien, Rob." She can picture Nancy's eye roll, can hear the laughter in her voice.

"I dunno. Cookies before dinner. And now dinner is in your room! I never thought I'd see the day."

"We've eaten in my bedroom."

"But not dinner, Nance. Not a whole meal! Nope, something's up in the Wheeler house."