You love going to the Art Museum and have often gone alone because it was just a nice way to relax. Robby is dumbfounded that you go by yourself even after you have taken him there once and shown him all of your favorite pieces. You explain that you love putting your earbuds in, turning on soft music, and just walking around quietly for a few hours. The next time you say you are going to the museum without him he says “No, I’m coming.”

You smile and try to explain “I just kinda want to have some time in my own head for a bit. We can watch a movie when I get home”

Robby thinks it over for a second before perking up like a lightbulb went off in his head. “Well how about I come and we start your museum playlist at the same time and just walk around by ourselves but still together kinda. If that makes sense?”

And honestly yeah it was just what you needed. You were free to move around however you wanted and Robby did the same but you would catch glimpses of him through doorways or just watch him admire one of the artworks when he thought you were in another room. There was something very comforting about knowing he was just around.

You thought back to how excited you had been to show him the Art Museum when you first got together and how you were also slightly disappointed that none of the other guys on the team had really been either. Maybe you could talk to the other girls and set up a group trip. But did you really want to risk subjecting the other visitors to what DP was like when he got bored and was finding ways to entertain himself? I mean he had barely made it through all the speeches at the ring ceremony.

It had been a rainy and grey afternoon when you had first taken Robby to the museum. It was one of his last off days before the season but the weather had put a damper on your original plan of a picnic on Art Hill. But you assured him the day wasn’t wasted and that there was plenty to see inside the massive stone building that held one of St. Louis’ greatest gems.

The look on his face when he saw how big Water Lilies actually is was priceless. He just wanted to stand there and look at it for a while which you were more than happy to oblige since it was one of your favorites anyways.

It took a little more selling on your part to get him interested in the modern and abstract stuff but he enjoyed watching how you got absorbed into the art around you. He took the opportunity to get some pictures of you since you pretty much never let him take them otherwise. You only found out about them a couple weeks later when you happened to see that his lock screen was a picture of you backlit by the led light installation. You honestly couldn’t figure out how he had gotten that angle without you noticing. He did get pretty excited about the burnt and broken violin encased in plastic so that was a small victory.

Your favorite moment might have been when a museum employee had yelled at him for getting too close to the statues because he was absolutely mesmerized by the folds in the fabric. He simply couldn’t understand how the artist had managed to make the stone look like transparent cloth.

The room you let him explore on his own was the section with all the Egyptian artifacts and the mummy. You wanted absolutely nothing to do with that but Robby got right down next to it looking back at you in the doorway saying “Babe can you believe this?! Look, you can see their hair and everything!” It was admittedly cute to see him so excited but also you will never understand how he got that close. You thought nothing would top it until you mentioned the sword room and he just looked at you with wide eyes and made you take him there immediately. He kept taking pictures to send to Rou and Sammy which apparently piqued their interest enough that they invited themselves on your next museum date.

There had been a more sullen moment when he had seen what was admittedly one of your favorite pieces in the whole museum, Despair by Auguste Rodin. Robby just kinda stopped and stared at it with a look on his face that was hard to decipher until he said “Yeah dude, I know how you feel.” He said it so softly, almost like it was just between him and the man collapsed in agony. Then the image of him crumpled on the ice in Boston flashed in your mind and you thought you maybe understood what he meant. You hadn’t known him then but knowing him now you can only imagine how much pain he had been in while recovering from his concussion and how lonely that experience must have been. You grabbed his hand and squeezed gently as you pulled him away and over to another of your favorite paintings.

Robby called you a dork when you got really excited about the collection of mid-century modern furniture stashed away in the basement but there is just something about their design that makes you love them. But he had admitted that the little room tucked away in the corner of the basement with a glass roof and the soft leather couch was the perfect spot to just sit and listen to the rain.

You must have been standing there a long time lost in thought because you let out a yell that was slightly too loud for a museum when someone came up behind you and put a hand on your shoulder. Thankfully, when you turned around to see who it was you saw Robby with his hand covering his mouth trying to keep his laughing to a more acceptable volume. How had he gotten behind you anyway?

“I think you zoned out again babe. That, or that blank wall is a whole new level of abstract art that I don’t understand.”

You laughed and pressed your face into his shoulder to try and hide the blush that was starting to color your face.

Robby just put his arm around you and started pulling you towards the stairs “Come on I heard someone mention the cafe downstairs is open again and I want coffee”

And who were you to deny him when he knew you always wanted coffee and fancy pastries.