Work Text:
“So, can I ask an weird question?” Steve asked as he was restocking videos with Robin, it was a slow Tuesday afternoon, the kids weren’t out of their school activities yet so it was still calm.
“If it’s a sex thing, no.” Robin quipped back.
“It’s not a sex thing.” He laughed some, he held on to Ghostbusters, debating if he should keep this one for the night.
“Okay, so Max spends like ninety percent of her time at my house.”
“You’re stating the obvious.” Robin said to him as she was walking back to the counter.
“Well… do you think that’s like going to change?” He asked casually, he finally sat back down at the counter.
“Doubtful, just like I’m not going to stop anytime soon.” Robin still hadn’t shaken anything from that night in StarCourt, and honestly neither had Steve.
“I’m thinking of redecorating the room next to mine…” he said it as Robin popped in a tape into the TV. She looked at him, eyeing him curiously.
“For Max?” He looked at her and sighed, not sure how weird it sounded.
“For Max.” He agreed. She sat back on the chair next to his and looked to be in thought.
“I think it’s sweet.” She finally said.
“Really, it isn’t over stepping?”
“No, I thought it was overstepping when her mother assumed she could spend the night with you when she started overnights without asking really, this doesn’t have to be her room you know? She can say she wants to stay in a different room.” Robin rambles out loud to Steve.
“I was looking in Better Homes and Gardens,” Robin immediately began laughing, “shut up, anyway I was looking at their last few issues and I have them in my bag.” Steve jumps up and goes to the back grabbing his bag before checking the time.
“You have them with you?”
“Shut up.”
“Okay Susie homemaker. Don’t worry, you still have time before those kids come crashing in.” Robin reassures Steve as he takes out some of the magazines he has in his bag, the pages he likes are dog eared.
“See, there’s a way to paint like an ocean scene on a wall, or we can do brightly colored paint or wall paper.” Steve is showing her different ideas he has when she finally looks at him.
“What will your parents say?”
“Like they ever check the guest rooms.” Steve mutters, Robin knows there’s hurt in his voice, but ignores it.
“Okay, so you expect to do this all in secret?” Robin asks him then.
“I mean, I guess so.” Steve says. Robin looks at little things he has circled she knows Max will love, he seems to have put in a lot of time and effort into this.
“How long have you been thinking about this?” She asks honestly.
“About a month, maybe six weeks, since I picked her up sick one day from school.” He says tp her.
“I think it’s sweet, why don’t I get my own room?” She asks defensively in a joking manner.
“You can have one if you want, you just typically share my bed.” He says to her, which is true and neither can deny it. Robin is sprinkled around his room as if they’re married, her records, books, and photographs litter every section of his room now.
“I know, I think it’s sweet. You should do it.” Robin decides, he nods before putting the magazines back away and puts it next to the counter as they wait for a customer.
It takes him a few weeks, he slowly is painting the room next to his, he does decide on a sunny mural almost. Robin helps more than he ever thought she would, the two of them focused on painting small details and her artistic skills are to die for. They go to the mall in the next town over for obvious reasons, pick up cute decor that Robin insists Max will love. Steve choses some skating stuff instead along with the cutesy shit. The blankets are the hardest in his opinion. Max prefers his blankets and everything, like it’s a safe guard from her nightmares.
He picks up a rose colored comforter for her to go with the light pink undertones in her room, the rose colored would typically be absolutely anti-Max, but he knows better. The girl is secretly very girly girl, but he never brings it up. He gets a couple of pictures enlarged some and frames them to add to her whole room.
Two are of her and El, completely dressed up and having a blast a mall photo shoot. One is of her and Lucas at Snowball, her hair neatly done and a smile on their faces. One is of the party taken shortly after the so called fire, he debates this one the most because she had admitted to him she felt guilty for being happy so soon after Billy died. But the kids are smiling, eating popcorn, watching a movie. Another isn’t really enlarged just a duplicate of one he has as a bookmark, it’s the two of them asleep in a the recliner downstairs, she looks so much younger or maybe just her actual age as they sleep. He loves the picture. He puts a couple other polaroids he’s taken into her new mirror trying to recreate a homey look.
He hangs up her sweatshirts she’s left here, other clothes, and puts her pajamas away in the dresser. He looks at her skateboard she’s left at his house and he has it propped by the door with a couple pairs of shoes she has left here as well. He looks at the clock, he has to go get her today from school. It’s a Wednesday so he won’t have every single child here tonight, it’s just the two of them and for some reason he feels subconscious about doing this. What if it’s weird? What if she thinks it’s weird? He has to shake the self doubt as he jogs down the steps to go to his car, he doesn’t have to show her he decides, if he doesn’t then it’s all okay.
“Hey Max.” He says as she gets in the front seat, the other boys have AV club today and that is just something she’s never been interested in, she seems cut off today if her body language is anything to go by.
“Hey.” She says quietly, she buckles up and just stares out the window, this is not making him feel confident to be like “hey I made you a room in my house!”, he drives anyway.
“What’d you do in school today?” He asks her, trying to get some form of conversation going between the two.
“Lucas and I had a fight about something dumb.”
“Ah,” makes sense, “what dumb thing?”
“Basketball, I don’t want him playing, but I can’t just say that to him.” She says to him.
“Why don’t you want him playing?”
“Billy played and he was such an asshole, what if he becomes just like Billy?” She sounds genuinely concerned.
“I played basketball.” Steve says to her.
“Yeah and from what I gathered you were a total douche bag.” Okay ouch.
“I used to be. I don’t think he could be a total douche bag, ever.” Steve says to her.
“How do we know though? I don’t want him to be anything like Billy.” He looks at her as they pull to a stop sign.
“He will never be like Billy.” He promises her.
“How do you know?”
“I won’t let him be.” They take the left on the way to his house and he pulls in the drive way.
“You won’t?” She looks at him.
“I promise.” He means it, he can never see Lucas behaving that way, but he understands the fear. She nods and gets out of the car.
“I don’t have homework tonight at least.” She says with the first smile she’s given him this afternoon.
“Really? Well, I have something to show you.” He says it in an unsure tone, she picks up on it immediately because of course she does.
“What is it?”
“A surprise.” He responds as they enter the house, she throws her backpack in it’s usual spot by the door and toes her shoes off. He kicks his off as well.
“Well let’s see.” He can pick up her amused tone in her voice, the kid may act like she has a wall around her, but she does love surprises.
“Okay come on upstairs.” The two walk together, he notices her hand slip in his like it had recently whenever they walked together. “Okay close your eyes.” He says at the top of the stairs and she laughs as he covers her eyes as well.
“You don’t need to cover my eyes if my eyes are closed!”
“I do because you are a sneaky peaky!” Steve says.
“Stop saying shit my grandma would say!” She has a light hearted giggle to her. They walk towards the room, Steve pauses unsure.
“Okay, rules about the surprise. One: you don’t have to ever step foot in here again. Two: you don’t have to like it. Three: I promise you can do whatever feels right to you.”
“Okay, okay,” she laughs some, “just show me the surprise.” He opens the door and the two walk in.
“Okay, open your eyes.” He drops his hand and looks for her reaction, he can’t read her. He always can read her, but tonight he can’t. She has her mouth open as she looks around, she walks towards the vanity where he has the pictures from a photo booth in the mirror and the picture of the two of them in a frame. She picks it up and looks back and him, looks at the photo once more, and back to him.
“This is… you made this…” she’s at a loss for words, something he never thought he’d see out of her.
“I made you a bedroom, if you’d like it I mean, we can totally make it back to normal.” He says too fast, not looking up at her, almost embarrassed that he ever came up with the idea. She has flung herself at him in an instant then. He holds her tightly, her red hair resting under his chin. He can feel his shirt getting a little damp.
“Thank you.” She whispers to him.
“You like it?” His voice is still unsure as he holds her.
“No one has ever done anything like this for me.” She whispers, it’s barely audible.
“I wanted you to feel at home is all.” He tries to explain to her in a few words.
“I always felt at home.” She says through tears.
“Well, now you have your own room to prove you live here.” Steve laughed.
Later that night the two had gone to bed and Steve heard his door creek some, he looked up to see Max wrapped up in his comforter.
“I know, I know I have my own room now.” She said. “I sense a but coming.” He laughed, partially asleep.
“I’m still allowed to sleep in your bed right?” She asked sheepishly.
“Of course you are.” Steve said with a smile, he laughed as she ran into bed as she always did, her cold ass feet touching his legs. “Why don’t you wear fucking socks to bed?” He laughed.
“I kick them off anyway.” She explained, readjusting some so he could rub her back while she fell asleep.
“I guess you do, goodnight Max.” He said to her, rubbing her back in the slow, rhythmic circles that put her to sleep.
“I love you.” Max said, looking up at him, sleep creeping into her face.
“I love you too.” He smiled at her as she snuggled back into the covers.