Show Your Love

Robin walks in the apartment she shares with Steve to see it looking like a holiday display threw up in it. There are boxes of chocolates, cheesy stuffed animals and balloons, flowers and trinkets, most in a garish shade range of red to white with every color of pink the two can compose. In the mess is Steve teetering on the wobbly chair they fished out of a dumpster six weeks ago that has since been reupholstered but made no less wobbly, adorning their ceiling with twinkle lights held in place with thumb tacks.

"What the fuck is with all the hearts and flower shit?" Robin sounds more bitter than she intends to but having a fight three days ago with Carol and now not having a Valentine herself has made her a little bitter on this day of love. 

Steve whirls around, nearly toppling from the wobbly chair with a guilty, "nothing." He has of course heard about the fight from both sides living with Robin and being childhood friends with Carol.

"All of this for Billy?" Robin puts a little too much disgust on Billy, she hears it and it is not like she means it like that. She likes Billy, they are friends but she is pretty sure he is going to hate this. 

Steve leaves a cord of lights dangling as he carefully hops down off the chair. Not carefully enough. His shin knocks into the table sending a pile of cellophane wrapped boxes of chocolate topping across the floor. One of them hits the hardwood past the rug and slides under the entertainment stand Mrs. Harrington had brought over when she last redecorated. It is also where they got the big plush couch Robin would have flopped onto when she came in the door if Steve didn’t have it covered in stuffed animals and more Valentine's trinkets.

"So what if it is?" Steve asks as he piles the chocolates back into a near identical pile waiting to tip once more. And tip they nearly do when he uses the corner to stand and his added weight makes the table wobble. He is quick to shove his thigh against the chocolates as a stabilizing method. 

It is not just that she is in no mood to celebrate that has her pulling a sour face. "He doesn't exactly strike me as a hearts and flowers kind of guy." In fact she has heard him rant about how not into this capitalistic garbage holiday he is and Steve is going to get his feelings hurt.

Steve's whole face pinches up like he is sucking on a sour lemon as he insists, "he is exactly a hearts and flowers kind of guy!"

Robin feels a little bad about it but it is better she point it out now and gets him to adjust his expectations than him getting a broken heart when the night goes bad. "No, he's a booze and cigarettes kind of guy."

Steve is not deterred by her insistence in the least as he moves over to the shelves that are usually lined with their combined knickknack collection, now covered in an array of flowers, "he's going to love it."

Robin decides trying to reason with Steve is a lost cause as she shoves some of the things on the couch over, she still ends up sitting on a set of stuffed otters holding hands. They are adorable, she kind of hates them but mostly because all she wants to do is show them to Carol so they can mock Steve together except they are in a fight so that is not going to happen. "Well don't come crying to me when he leaves you broken hearted on Valentine’s day."

Steve turns away from the only non-red, white, or pink flowers in the room, a bouquet of sunflowers that had to be expensive given the time of year, to glare at her. "Keep it up and I won't give you your Valentine's gift."

"You got me one?" Robin perks up, mood softened. 

"Of course," Steve rolls his eyes, turning back to his flowers, "it's on your bed."

"Well then I hope he's not an asshole about all this mush." Robin shifts off the couch tucking the otters behind her back as she starts stepping toward the hallway.

"He won't be." Steve turns, eyes scrutinizing the otters sticking out from behind her but letting her take it.

When Robin gets to her room it is to find two bags waiting one with her name on the tag the other with a note.

 -Stop being stubborn and give this to Carol, she loves all these romantic holidays.

Robin fingers through the bag, she can tell by the sheer amount out in their shared area and by the expensive chocolates in the bag that Steve’s mother has had a hand in his over the top display. Robin’s own bag has similar items she likes and she decides to take his advice right after she has a talk with Billy.

-

Billy tosses the door to his apartment open, hair dripping with a growl, "what do you want Buckley?"

Robin pinches her nose up at the low slung towel around his waist, who answers the door like this? Instead of berating his decorum a pointless task to undertake given that it is Billy she get down to why she came. "It's about Steve."

"Is he okay?" His angry demeanor changes in an instant, the hand keeping his towel in place curling tight enough his knuckles go white.

Robin hurries to quell that worry, "no, no nothing like that. He's fine." 

Billy visibly relaxes before narrowing his eyes at her, "then why the fuck are you here? I'm trying to get ready, he insisted we have dinner tonight."

It is the huffy tone and the eye roll that has Robin pricking because Steve just wants to make Billy happy even if it is just a stupid capitalistic holiday. Wants to make her and Carol happy too because that is the kind of guy he is and she does not want Steve to get his stupid soft heart broken because Billy hates Valentine’s day. "That, you can't do any of that shit tonight!"

Billy opens his mouth and is cut off before he can get a syllable out. "No! You listen!" Robin pokes him in the chest hard enough the flesh under her finger turns white as Billy blinks at her, taken aback by her tone. "He's got the apartment done up and he's making you dinner and all that shit and I know it's stupid. I know! But he’s gone through a lot of trouble and you'd better damn well act like you appreciate it because if I come home tomorrow to find him broken hearted I am going to crush your balls like Gallagher with a watermelon."

Billy scrunches his nose up feeling the warning is unjustified. "Yeah sure Buckley." Billy brushes her warning off, annoyed that she came and interrupted him getting ready for this. He is not looking to break Steve's heart even if he thinks this holiday is dumb.

Robin narrows her eyes, poking him in the chest one last time with a hissing, "I'm serious," before turning on her heel and stomping the three doors down to Carol's apartment.

By the time she knocks on Carol's door Billy has slammed his door closed with a slew  of muttered complaints. There's a muffled, "Coming!" Shouts from within and Robin suddenly has nervous butterflies in her stomach as her fingers curl around the handle of the bag, the silly otter stuffed animal she stole from Steve peeking out.

She picked up some daisy and tulips for cheap, okay she stole the daisies form Steve's array as well but he didn't even notice and that left her with just the right amount to splurge on the tulips, one of Carol's favorite flowers. It is not much from her, Carol will know Steve and his mom had a hand in it. Normally not a big deal but Carol brought up Valentines and going someplace fancy and Robin got cagey about it because she cannot be the one to splurge like that.

When the door finally pulls open Robin is half expecting Carol to be in the sexy dress she was talking about wearing to dinner tonight before they fought. Instead she is in a simpler dress, more casual but no less sexy to Robin. The one thin strap slipping down Carol's shoulder is particularly unfairly sexy. Robin has to bite her lip to keep from pushing forward to give Carol a kiss she is not sure will be welcome.

Carol stretches out against the door in a pose Robin knows is practiced. The lines of her body pulled perfectly for an enticing picture. She doesn’t look surprised to find Robin at her doorstep if anything she looks like a particularly pleased cat. "It's about time you showed up," Carol twists away from the door with a wave of her hand, "come on birdi foods going to get cold."

There is a butterfly in Robin's stomach, tripping over her own feet as she follows after Carol. "Food?" The place is more tastefully done up than Robin's own apartment, the twinkle lights just enough to set the mood and empty vase with lit candles between a meal laid out for two. "You knew I was coming?"

"Stevie let me know and I figured I could compromise a little, food is from the place I wanted to take you but the wine is that cheap stuff you like and I rented us a movie."

"You compromised your boogie ass plans for me?" Robin grins so wide her cheeks hurt a little as she offers the tulips and daisy to Carol who smiles as she holds them under her nose for a sniff before turning to arrange them in the vase.

When they are to her liking Carol turns back to Robin catching her by the tie, she dressed up assuming she was going to find herself dragged to the aforementioned restaurant after a bit of groveling. Carol smirks tugging Robin close before walking fingers over her stomach, one nail intentionally pulling at the fabric between buttons and dragging over naval. Robin shudders and tips her head forward until their foreheads are touching. "I'm sure you can think of some way to make me forget about those," Carol snorts, warm air ghosting over Robin's mouth, "boogie plans."

Robin nods her head, she can absolutely do that. She closes the space between them, catching Carol's smiling mouth. All thoughts of Steve and his date night are forgotten, save one stray thought that if it does go poorly he better call someone else because she is taking Carol's phone off the hook.

-

Billy shows up for his Valentine's date with Steve fifteen minutes late ready to be a party pooper just to piss Robin off. But when he walks in to find the place covered in twinkle lights and candles and a slow crooning metal ballad playing over the speakers it is hard to not let Steve take his coat and show him over to the table set for two. 

Billy doesn't know what to do about his pretty boy and all the over the top ways he shows his love, except to kiss him stupid and say thank you even though he is totally pawning half this kitschy stuff off on Max and her friends at the first chance. But he will keep one or two things around just to let Steve know he does appreciate it.

Steve is beaming as he pulls out the chair for Billy, with a meal that has his mouth watering. As good as it looks Billy puts eating on hold, holding a hand out for Steve, "how about a dance before dinner?" He knows Steve likes dancing, picked it up from his mom and the smile it gets him has Billy’s heart hammering in his chest.

Billy tugs him close and moves Steve around the small space, eyeing the silly trinkets and flowers with both disgust and appreciation. He hopes Steve likes the mixed tape and the necklace that is a match for the one he always wears burning a hole in his pocket. Billy’s own declaration of love.

- The End